Whole World Is Watching
by elveriamoir
Summary: FrostIron eventually. Set during Avengers Assemble. Loki's heart darkened by his own actions and the words of the All Father is easily swayed by the Chitauri. So with emerald eyes glowing blue he sets about to rule Midgard, but there is one mortal there who catches his eye. Can Tony put aside his own conceited ideals and hear the silent scream for help.
1. Prologue

_**An: Welcome to my newest fanfiction.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **Warning: This story will contain slash, if this offends you then please do not flame me.**_

 _ **Warning: This story will contain scenes of a sexual nature.**_

 _ **Warning: This story will contain scenes of violence.**_

 _ **Warning: This story will contain swear words.**_

 _ **AN: I will also put a warning section before the beginning of each chapter.**_

 _ **FanFiction Queen: I hope I can do justice to your faith that I can write this.**_

 _ **Without any further ado let us begin.**_

Prologue.

He fell formless through space and time. Darkness, so dark and so cold even the stars fled from the endless infinity of it. Warmth and light a distant dream. Laughter and song but a memory. Yet even in the darkness a spark of hope bloomed deep within the still slowly beating heart. Hope that love still existed in the world for him, hope that at least two beings in the universe would morn his passing.

Slowly shapes formed in the darkness, and just as slowly consciousness and form found him again. He felt firm ground beneath his naked back and curled into himself as the glamour he had worn all his life was stripped from him and the air around him filled with laughter that sent shards of pain into his very soul.

True darkness claimed him and he finally passed into insensibility, mind refusing to take in what horrified eyes could see. The laughter followed him into the void and soon all thoughts of self were stripped from his oblivious and undefended mind. Green eyes opened only to flood with ice blue and his own manic laughter joined the sounds filling the air around him.

Uncaring of his nakedness Loki stood, sweep dark hair from his pale face as he did. He bowed low to the being before him. Revenge would be his and he would start with allowing the Chitauri access to the plant his not-brother loved so dearly. Eyes glowing blue he agreed to open a portal to allow the void-beings into Midgard.

 _ **AN: Reviews will always be welcome.**_


	2. Intro

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **Song for today: 'Heal my Wounds', Poet's of the Fall.**_

 _ **I love Loki. I regularly want to slap Thor and Odin, although Thor is less to blame than his father. Stupid Odin thinking he knew best. I mean seriously who keeps someone's birth race from them, while simultaniously calling that race monsters and expecting that the child finding out will end well? So much for being all seeing. Did any one on Asgard ever realise Frigga hadn't been pregnant when Odin presented his second son?**_

 _ **Sorry rant over.**_

 _ **Warning: Violence.**_

Chapter One – Intro.

" _The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world. They will wield its power, but our ally knows it's working as they never will. He is ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri will follow. The world will be his, the universe yours, and the humans, what can they do…but burn?_ "

Loki smiled widely as the sceptre was handed to him, he would have power, he would be king. As the air rippled around him in the expanse of the void he ran a hand over the leather and gold armour he had been gifted. His allies were generous and they would allow him to rule Midgard if he only opened the portal to allow them through.

Raising his head he stepped towards where the air itself was shimmering and bending as a portal large enough for one person was being ripped through time and space. With blinding light it opened showing, for a single moment a world of metal and wires, before he stepped into its grasp and the light show sucked him bodily towards Midgard itself.

Sounds, panicked and awed, finally reached his ears through the sound of his heart beating loudly in them and forced Loki to raise his head. Nausea swam in his very soul as his hazy eyes fought to take in the sights around him. The humans seemed stunned into stillness bar maybe two of them. Loki used their distraction to wipe sweat from his brow, before his eyes finally allowed him to focus on the large leather clad, black skinned man before him. He swallowed hard as he took in the eye patch and warrior's stance, images of the All-Father over laid reality for moments and Loki physically shook himself to remover the frozen feeling that settled momentarily over his heart. The All-Father threw him into the void along with The Thunderer. This planet would be the first to feel his vengeance for such actions, he first needed to find the Tesseract and open the portal.

Loki felt his eyes grow wide as he took in the glowing cube behind the human challenging him. Well stage one seemed to be complete. He had found the Tesseract. Now he needed some aid in getting out of wherever he currently was. His eyes flew among the men surrounding him, strange that they were all males, maybe this planet didn't hold females very highly. He shook his head again, he needed to concentrate. His eyes alighted on three of the mortals. The one with the bow could be useful, especially as he alone seemed to be in possession of a weapon. The one by the Tesseract had a shrewd intelligence in his eyes that Loki could use, and the one in the streamlined suit seemed to be connected into whatever kind of communications system these people were using. Those three he could use. It was a shame the rest must die.

"Sir. Please put down the spear!" Loki tilted his head as the one in leather ordered him. The tone of voice informed him that this was a human who was used to being obeyed. The four mortals closing in on him must also be carrying weapons of some kind as they barely flinched as he moved. That would never do.

Loki looked down at the spear in his hand and then shot the man in leather a 'really, you did so not tell me to do that,' look. He followed the look by a single blast from his weapon, grinning wickedly as the bow-man proved he was a true soldier and tackled the leather clad leader out of the way. Apparently he was going to get to have a little fun in escaping this place.

He ducked as a massive noise filled the air and metal projectiles flew past him at speed. Well this complicated things. Since they were aiming to kill or seriously injure him he had no qualms in embedding a knife in each of their throats. Really he was a god and these mere mortals thought they could take him down. His anger rose and he pushed down a second wave of nausea to aim his spear at the machines that were still making strange beeps. The high pitched annoyance dealt with he snapped the arm of the next human to attack him before using the blade of the spear to gut him. He had barely dropped the now still mortal form when several more of the metal projectiles were flying his way, his magic barely managed to stop the one aimed at his face by the bow-man and he grinned toothily at the human who looked in shock at having missed before aiming yet another blue beam at them. To his surprise all but one of the humans managed to avoid the blast and he destroyed yet another of their cursed machines.

He kicked the last human physically into a wall and stopped for a moment to glance around, wincing as the light from a sparking machine stung his eyes and feeling the heat from one of the burning ones. Movement caught his eye and he was barely able to make it to the bow-man to deflect the small, hand-held weapon the human carried away from him with a steel grip on his wrist. He admired this one's stubbornness and loyalty, grinning he pressed the tip of his sceptre against the human's chest. "You have heart," he heard himself murmur as the hazel eyes flooded black, before glowing a soft ice-blue.

As the bow-man finally lowered his weapon Loki allowed his own head to tilt forward and a relieved smile onto his lips. As pathetic as the All-Father had once told him the mortals of the realm were, in his current weakened state he was glad to have the dangerous one on his side. Drawing a deep and steadying breath Loki swirled and grabbed the arm of the male who appeared to be connected to their communications in some way, tapping the spear lightly against this one's chest he was even more relieved to find it took almost no energy to bend this one's mind to his will. Movement behind him caught his attention and Loki felt a tired sigh leave his body, "Please don't."

He saw the leather clad human crouched by a box that from the empty space in one of the machines, clearly held the Tesseract. The human continued to rise and even turn his back, "I still need that."

Loki felt his eyebrows draw down as the human responded, "This doesn't have to get any messier."

Sweat slid uncomfortably over his shivering skin as Loki reigned in a flash of temper, "Of course it does! I have come too far for anything else." The venom in his own voice surprised him more that the mortal turning to face him. "I am Loki of Asgard." Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear his not-mother's voice scolding him for his appalling manners, but he pushed it to one side, "And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

The older looking male, looked up from where he was checking on one of his downed comrades. "Loki?" His voice was raised in slight surprise, but also knowing. Loki bowed his head, "Brother of Thor!" And just like that the idea that one of these mortals may help him without mind control was gone and he snarled softly at the human.

The leather clad one had taken his distraction to slip further away, "We have no quarrel with your people."

Loki sighed drawing his eyes back to look at the human who despite seeing his power still stood tall against him. In another life Loki could have admired the mortal, but he was no longer that naive and he merely huffed a patronising laugh. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

The leather clad one didn't seem too impressed with that, "Are you intending to step on us?" His single eye was drawn wide, and despite the voice still being calm, anger could be clearly heard.

Swallowing as once again images of the All-Father painted themselves over reality, Loki decided to talk, "I come with glad tidings." He locked eyes with the old-white-male for a moment before switching his attention back to the leather clad one, who was thankfully no longer reminding him of the All-Father, "Of a world made free."

The leather clad male sighed, "Free from what?"

Loki narrowed his eyes, this mortal sounded like he was talking to a child, how dare he. "Free from freedom," he smirked, "Freedom is life's great lie." The single eye of the leather clad one darkened in anger, but Loki admired that he kept a straight face. It would almost be a shame to kill this one. "Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki trailed off for a second, breathing should not be this hard, he had to end this quickly before he showed weakness. Settling his breathing down again he turned to the old-looking male who he had momentarily wished to have on his side without having to do this, and pressed the sceptre to his chest, just above his heart. He held eye contact with him, "You will know peace," the words came out sounding almost apologetic as he watched the human's dark-grey eyes flood ice blue.

Angry at himself Loki spun and faced the leather clad one as he decided to speak again, "Yeah you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing."

Anger raging silently Loki heard the bow-man walk towards him, "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow, it will drop a hundred feet of rock on us." Loki narrowed his eyes at the leather clad human, yes he was definitely the All-Father of this realm with tricks like that. "He means to bury us," the bow-man's voice filtered through the red haze that had descended at realising he had been tricked and Loki grinned as the leather-clad one looked betrayed.

"Like the Pharos of old." The what? Loki's brain asked,

The older human's voice stopped his curiosity, "He is right! The portal's collapsing in on itself. We have maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

Minute must be a short period of time, Loki thought as he eyed the bow-man closely at the slightly alarmed tone of the older human. "Well then," he suggested, wincing at the grunt the leather glad one made as the bow-man's hand held weapon's projectile hit him squarely in the chest. Mental note made to keep his magic as a shield between those things and his person Loki strode forward and allowed the trio he had collected to follow him.

Their steps led them through empty corridors and he found himself seated on the back of one of their metal chariots and being chased through rock tunnels. Anxiety showed its head for a second as he hit one of the following metal chariots with a blast from the sceptre in his hands. In his current state one hundred feet of rock sounded too much for even his Jotunheim form to handle, and he couldn't shift into that form. He made a mental note to find out what measurements translated to in something he could understand before once again focusing on a very determined female driving a metal chariot. Apparently females were allowed to be part of things then, shame this one would have to die. Soon they were in fresh air and Loki winced as the sweat dried on his skin. The metal projectiles from a very loud, metal bird made him curse fluently and his eyes widened as he heard the voice of the leather-clad human he thought the bow-man had killed. Once again huffing out a breath Loki took aim and his eyes widened as the metal bird burst into flames on the beams impact.

This planet clear was strange. That would make ruling over it more interesting at least.

 _ **AN: Please let me know what you think.**_


	3. Mother Earth

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **Song for the day: 'Physical', by Haley.**_

 ** _Quote for the day:_**

 _ **Virginia 'Pepper' Potts: [walking in on Stark's robots trying to get him out of the Iron Man suit] What is going on here?**_

 _ **Tony Stark: Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.**_

 _ **Virginia Pepper Potts: Are those bullet holes?**_

 _ **Warning: Heavy drinking.**_

Chapter Two – Mother Earth.

Water, and darkness. Tony sighed heavily as he worked at disconnecting the transmission lines, hearing it echo back to him within the confines of his suit. It would be while he was at the bottom of the river he would get an itchy nose. Seconds later Jarvis confirmed he had succeeded in his task and he heaved a sound of relief as he blasted himself from the water into the air. If this worked not only would Stark Towers be self-sustainably lit and ran for a year, but he could take off the suit and scratch his nose before celebrating with Pepper.

As if his thoughts summoned her, Pepper's voice sounded over the transmission device while her image appeared on screen. "Have you disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?"

Tony grinned as he took a sharp left around the corner of one of the buildings, "Stark Tower's is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy."

Pepper responded with her normal sass, and Tony felt his excitement grow as he headed towards home, watching in a mixture of awe and relief as the towering infrastructure slowly relit from the bottom, the glass sides glowing with light. Landing with a thud, Tony walked down the steps, suit being removed every step of the way, ignoring Jarvis' warning of Agent Coulson being on the line. As soon as his head and hands were free he scratched his nose with relief before swooping over to Pepper and spinning her around in his exhuberance.

"Told you it would work."

"Of course you did, now put me down."

And then he opened his mouth ruining the moment momentarily. Right note to self, next time tell her more than 50 per cent. Focus on Pepper Tony, she is the only one who will repeatedly put up with you and does the whole interacting with others/dealing with emotion thing for you. Swiviling his head Tony grinned as he took in the chilled champagne. Time to save this for turning sour. "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?"

"It's not going to be that subtle."

The humour in her voice had Tony sighing in relief, even as he made a mental note that he was going to need to buy her something expensive or worse make a public appearance. "I tell you what, the next one is going to say Potts on the tower." Please work.

She smiled at him, "On the lease."

And we are back in business Stark. He winced, dramatically drawing air between his teeth and pulling his champagne glass back, "Call your mom can you bunk over."

Finally a laugh, Jarvis took that moment to interrupt, "Sir the telephone. I am afraid my protocalls are being overridden."

Tony snarled mentally as Coulson's voice sounded from his phone demanding that they needed to talk. He tried to make the agent leave but within seconds the man himself was walking out of the private elevator. The elevator no-one other than Pepper and himself was authorised to use. Throwing an evil look at Jarvis' nearest camera he nearly missed Pepper's greeting of the agent.

"Phil?" Okay how are they on first name terms? "His first name is Agent." Okay that was lame, his brain supplied, real smooth. Tony mentally groaned as he followed Pepper over to greet the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Why was he being handed something. "I don't like being handed things." Ah blessings to Pepper she was taking whatever it was that he had been expected to take.

"Offical consulting hours are between eleven and five every other Thursday," he snarked as he lost his champagne to Pepper and gained the black covered computer off her.

"This is not a consultation," why was the man not drinking the expensive champagne Pepper had handed him?

Pepper's next words filtered through his brain and he groaned as he started to open the computer. He had thought he would be rid of that Avengers nonsense. Suppose he had better see what they wanted from him. He flung the images around the room and just like that Pepper was leaving him to travel to D.C. because he had homework. Tony really didn't like S.H.I.E.L.D. Even if Pepper was whispering promises for later, that meant he had to wait. He'd never been good at waiting. And he still didn't know why the agent was Phil.

Left alone, the open bottle of champagne mocked him. It wasn't until much later that night Tony even started to look at the information he had been given. As interesting as the information on the people Agent Coulson was suggesting he work with was, the question of why they suddenly wanted him onside was calling to him more.

Dread settled in his stomach as he read through the folder he had been presented with. Since S.H.I.E.L.D. knew he was working on clean sustainable energy the sales pitch of to why they were working on the thing called the Tesseract did not sit well with him, but pushing that to one side for now the knowledge that an object of sheer radiation was in the hands of an apparently insane immortal, who had single handedly killed several of Fury's best sent him back to his drinks cabinet. Nursing a single malt Tony settled in to read further.

Dawn had broken on the horizon when he finally finished reading on the object known as the Tesseract, and the now wanted terrorist known as Loki. Rubbing a tired hand over his face Tony stumbled up and casting a longing glance at the half empty bottle of single malt, dragged himself to the kitchen and to his expresso machine. He had much more reading to do and he needed to be awake, not drunk to do it.

The dregs of his sixth cup of coffee were stone cold by the time he finished reading and Tony sat back, face pale in the late afternoon son. Fury apparently had a plan, and he was in on it. Nodding slowly he pushed to his feet and recalled all of the information onto the computer. He needed to shower first, then, and only then would he call Coulson and arrange a lift to where ever Fury wanted this group of misfits to meet. Hanging his head as he reached his bedroom door Tony hung his head. He really hoped no one expected heroics from him, although he was planing on reading up on Gamma-radiation and where the science filed was on the study. After all if he was going to join this mad cap adventure he would at least be able to join with his fellow genius and have interesting conversations.

 _ **AN: Let me know what you think please.**_


	4. A Demon's Fate

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **Song for the day: 'Catch Me' by Demi Lovato.**_

 _ **Quote for the day:**_

 _ **Loki: "I never wanted the throne, I only ever wanted to be your equal."**_

Chapter Three – A Demon's Fate.

They had travelled for a full sun cycle before Loki decided there was enough distance between what had become a rather large crater previously housing what he was coming to understand had been a large military and research facility. He felt a small pang of regret that he would never see such a marvel as militia and Loremasters working together in harmony, before it was swept away by the metal carriage drawing to a stop. He took the few moments that were presented to him by his people leaving the car to pull his mask firmly into place, mind controlled or not he would not allow these mere mortals to see him so weakened. So even as he stood, squaring his shoulders, he ran a discrete hand across his brow removing the cooled sweat.

His eyes narrowed as the bow-man strode across the grey stone-like ground to hail someone at the gate. Just before his panic could convalesce into pure anger the human at the gate nodded and the bow-man made a gesture that all was safe. Raising his head Loki stepped from the metal carriage and met the enthralled human half way.

"He is an old … friend, and you needed a private, undiscoverable place sir." The bow-man informed him. Loki raised an eyebrow as he caught the hesitation before friend, but nodded making a gesture for the human to proceed. "He is a mercenary of sorts…if we have enough money he and his troop will house and protect us."

Loki grinned widely even as he thought, "Very well get him over here than bo…wait do you have a name?"

"Clint Sir. Clint or Hawk." Loki chuckled at the confusion the human…Clint…managed to attain even with the mind control.

"Very well Clint. Bring him over here."

Clint headed back to the burly looking male. Loki decided it was much easier to distinguish the mortal in his thoughts when he had something tangible to call the human by. Straightening his back Loki took the time to check on the older mortal. Ice blue eyes rested on him, but since he could sense no rebellion against the mind control Loki let him look his fill. Apparently even in thrall this human was interested in a god, which was good to know should the thrall break. While he supposed he would have to kill the older mortal if such a thing occurred, he was strangely reluctant to do so. He raised his head at the sound of muffled footsteps and smiled at the new mortal who came to a stop in front of him. The trio who had accompanied him when they had fled in the metal carriage surrounded the new human, blocking Loki's move from the rest of the group.

When the newcomer didn't smile back Loki's grin merely grew as he hid his annoyance at having to expend more energy. The sceptre rested lightly on the chest of the human male and Loki met his dark brown eyes, watching as they flooded ice blue. "Very well mortal, I will accept your kind offer of hospitality and see each of your fellows separately."

The human spoke, "Very good sir."

Loki grimaced as he was led through the dripping tiled halls that were to be his home until the portal could be called. He was exhausted, feeling worse now than when he had been dragged to Midgard through space and time, yet his own magic thrummed beneath his skin, untouched and trapped by the very sceptre that allowed him to control these mortals. Even laying the metal object to one side didn't allow the power to flow freely, but he supposed he shouldn't complain, this object, this gift gave him the power to rule this miserable planet.

He settled on the dirt floor watching the humans in white jackets, scientists he'd been informed they were called, rush about at the command of the older mortal, Selvig. A glow from his knees caught his attention and he looked down, eyes widening as he peered at the pulsing gem in his sceptre. Momentary fear gripped him as he closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to be pulled where the Overlord would take him.

It was a strange feeling, Loki thought, to know his body was still seated on a dirty floor somewhere on Midgard, but to be unable to feel it as he opened his eyes and looked upon the one who would aid him.

"The Chitauri grow restless." The voice seemed to echo around him, despite the sibilant quality.

Straightening his shoulders, Loki tilted his head as he watched his own armoured form walk around. "Let them gird themselves. I will lead them in glorious battle." Loki shook his head where he sat on the floor of whatever planet he was on while watching his own armoured form again. This was just weird and now he sounded like Thor. Oh the ugly looking guy was talking again he supposed he better pay attention.

"Battle? Against the …meagre…might of earth?" Well now that stung a bit. This was the planet they wanted him ruler of the Overlord was disparaging.

"I said glorious not lengthy." Well that was great his projection sounded bored. He was sure he could still have more emotion than that. "If your force is as … Formidable… as you claim?" Oh ho that was better. For a moment there he had felt like a puppet. Sass was much better, although he would have preferred a more intelligent response.

And it apparently hit a nerve. "You question us?" Definitely hit a nerve. "You question him?" Apparently he was still recovering from his void fall, because he just remembered why it was a bad idea to annoy these creatures. He froze, keeping both pairs of his eyes on the Overlord. "He who put the sceptre in your hand? Who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose, when you were cast out? Defeated!"

That stung. "I was a king!" he snapped back, even as his mind screamed at him to calm down and get control. "The rightful king of Asgard. Betrayed…"

The Overlord moved and Loki forced his projection to look at the ground, the thing unsettled him. "Your ambition is little," the thing snarled, even as Loki forced himself to turn away, "And full of childish need. We look beyond the earth, to the greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil."

Well that was new, "You don't have the Tesseract yet." Loki winced at the words coming out of his mouth. Since when did he channel Thor in stating the obvious? Apparently it was also the wrong thing to say as he, well his projection, had a face seconds away from becoming friendly with the Overlord's claws. "I don't threaten," he tried to calm. "But until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words." Please let him be just words.

The thing lowered its hand and Loki breathed a small sigh of relief, "You will have your war Asgardian." The overlord now stepped closer to his projection and Loki knew his physical body was sweating in earnest now. "If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm…no barren moon…no crevice…where he cannot find you!" Loki did not like the Overlord standing behind him, especially not that close, but he fought with himself for calm.

"You think you know pain?" Loki's eyes widened as he watched the thing move its clawed hand closer to the projections head. Unused to praying he dug his nails into the palms of his hands hoping beyond reason that the projection was no different to the ones he had used for tricks for centuries. "He will make you long for something sweet as pain."

Loki tried to pull his consciousness back as the hand reached the side of his head. Magic held the illusion in place for seconds too long and he forced back a yell of white hot agony as he hurtled back into his physical being. The sceptre was hurriedly laid across his knee as he raised shaking fingers to massage at his temples. Apparently he had been just quick enough, he could not fail, and he had no choice but to succeed. Now though he had mortals to gain information from.

The bow-man would be first as Selvig was clearly busy. Mind made up Loki tried to push to his feet, cursing softly as the world decided it wished to turn sideways for a few moments. Advice given in a warm voice flashed through his mind, and he decided following the instructions couldn't hurt. Leaning forward, he braced his hands on his thighs, pulled his stomach muscles in tight and tried to breathe deeply. When he next opened his eyes the world was in the correct rotation again and he hesitantly pushed himself upright, smiling when it stayed so. He glared at the sceptre where it lay on the floor before crouching to scoop it into his arm, having learnt from his previous mistake he rose slowly and approached the ledge where Clint had decided to take refuge.

Loki tilted his head as he examined the human. There was obviously much he still needed to learn as he had not thought the race capable of the far sight this mortal was currently indulging in, ice blue eyes met his and Loki gestured to the hall where the lead mercenary had indicated he would find sustenance. After he had eaten he would pick Clint's brain for any knowledge that could be found on those who could be left to oppose him.

 _ **AN: Please leave me a review and let me know what you think.**_


	5. See Who I Am

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **Song for the day: 'New Divide' by Linkin Park.**_

 _ **Quote for the day:**_

 _ **Tony Stark: "No hard feelings Point Break. You've got a mean swing."**_

Chapter Four – See who I am.

Loki rubbed his head as Clint left him. While the intel he had gathered through his conversation with the marksman had proven to be very interesting he still had no way to actually use it and so the energy he had expended to carefully go through the human's mind had been wasted. Groaning quietly Loki crumbled the last of the dry bread he had managed to find into the remains of the cold tinned soup he had been provided, of course the mess hadn't been edible even when hot.

Giving up on being able to force himself to eat any more of the Midgardrian food Loki pushed away from the table and wandered back into the large dank room where Selvig was working with the Tesseract. The scientist's voice echoed back to him and Loki hitched a smile onto his face as he crossed the room to where the older human was working, he supposed at least he was providing one of these mortals with some new knowledge. Shaking the stray thought away, Loki strode up to the plastic separating the scientist from the rest of the room and leant against the fragile supports next to where Clint was playing with a box of something.

"Where did you find all these people?" Loki found himself grinning at the easy camaraderie the two had kept even with his mind control.

"Shield has no shortage of enemies doctor," Loki watched Clint tap something and hold it up. Suddenly he understood that it was a computer of some kind. "This the stuff you need?"

The scientist barely looked up, "Yeah, Iridium…It's found in meteorites and forms anti-protons."

Loki blinked…anti-whats…he really needed to pick the scientist's brain soon. Rolling his shoulders he focused back in at the conversation, "It's very hard to get hold of."

"Especially if S.H.I.E.L.D. knows you need it." Clint sounded almost indignant at that.

"Well I didn't even know I needed it." The scientist less so. Loki decided to make himself known and Selvig's attention instantly switched to him. "Hey!" the scientist greeted. "The Tesseract has shown me so much, it's more than knowledge. It's truth."

Well then, Loki thought, perhaps they were actually getting there. "I know," he agreed calmly, smiling at the scientist for a second before glancing out of the corner of his eye at the bow-man. "What did it show you Agent Barton?"

The crackled, ice-blue eyes of the marksman turned on to him and the human smiled, "My next target."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Tell me what you need." Despite his calm answer Loki was hoping to get out of the chilled, damp atmosphere of their lab.

Clint turned and walked towards the case containing his bow as he answered and Loki felt a mischievous smile dance across his face, "I need a distraction," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent snapped the bow into a useable size, "and an eyeball."

Loki glanced over his shoulder as he walked elegantly across the plaza in a place called Stuttgart in a country called Germany. It had taken no effort on his part to transport not only Clint with him to the location needed, but also several other mercenaries, the sceptre's power was obviously much greater than anything he could have hoped to achieve without the gift. At Clint's suggestion he had changed his clothes into a multi-layered, Midgard-styled suit, complete with dress shoes and green, silken scarf. The sceptre had shimmered down into a walking cane, and while he had been able to call on his own magic for the change of attire the sceptre had needed him to use the gifted power again. The glance over his shoulder was carefully planned, allowing the cameras that Clint had explained to him to catch a glimpse of his face in profile. After all for his plan to succeed he would need S.H.I.E.L.D. distracted.

A seductive smile and several charming sentences later Loki found himself looking down at a crowd of Midgardrians, all of whom seemed to be dressed in the finery Selvig had explained and all of whom were lying to each other, or partially with-holding the truth. Loki check the time piece Selvig had provided him with and noticed he had at least five minutes until Clint would need the distraction and the eyeball. With time to spare Loki leant against the white marble railing and studied the humans below him, the male whom he would need to acquire attributes from was easily spotted as he was gesturing calmly as he explained on of the pieces present to a crowd of eager listeners. Marking the human with a flare that would appear only to his magical sight Loki took a chance to fully absorb the mortals' style. The woman all seemed to favour floor length dress, slit up to the thigh and plunging at the front, even occasionally at the back as well. These women were even further beneath him than a normal mortal would have been, all show and no substance. The few older females there caught his eye and he mentally calculated the wealth they were wearing and found himself impressed, some of those pieces would not have been out of place at an Asgardrian feast. These woman were dressed more moderately, and in fabrics Loki could place, in his eyes they looked much more elegant, despite their obviously greater age.

A glance at the timepiece told him he needed to move and so abandoning the effort to find an individuality amongst the male dress Loki abandoned his watch post and casually walked to the head of the stairs. Even as focused as he was he took no small delight in the admiring glances sent his way by the many female eyes turned his way, he preened a little as he realised there were even some male gazes fixed on him. With the elegance he had been taught to use his entire life Loki, stepped lightly down the grand staircase, firstly he needed all eyes on him and to do that his next move would have to break the spell of the high pitched string instruments that were being played. Mind made up he carefully spun the sceptre-come-cane and grasped the wrong end of it, then without breaking his stride he swung it into the jaw of the slow to react guard.

Loki smiled charmingly as he strode towards his target, that had gotten their attention, and he had to say he did like having the eyes of all these mortals on him, the time had come to remind them why they had once called him a god. With no effort on his part Loki backed his target up and flipped him to land face up on the middle of one of the displays. The crowd backed up slightly, not moving to save the elder human in Loki's grasp. Sighing softly at the cowardliness shown Loki carefully placed down his cane and reached into his inner pocket causing another gasp and flinch to echo around the crowd. The man in his grasp finally started to struggle and Loki chose to look at the crowd and smile slightly madly, rather than at the human he was injuring in such a callous manner. The technology may be impressive, but the rather blood way it proceeded made even his war hardened stomach clench in disgust.

The humans were fleeing from him now, and so with his part in the retrieving of Iridium done, Loki left the still twitching human across the artefact and strode casually across the floor behind the fleeing humans. As he walked he allowed the sceptre's magic to flow across him and called to mind the ceremonial armour he had worn in Asgard, after all the people needed to know who they would be bowing to. By the time he reached the cool night air he was dressed head to toe in his gold and leather armour, horned helm in place and green velvet cape flowing to ankle length.

As a large percentage of the mortals ran about in panic before him, Loki took a moment to admire the courage of those who tried to herd them to safety. A loud whining noise caught his attention and Loki tilted his head in annoyance, well he couldn't have anyone interfering. A quick movement and the sceptre ended the noise and possibly the humans in the metal carriage that had created it. That got the attention of the rest of the mortals who had been standing staring in confusion. Deciding he couldn't allow them to flee Loki reached down, and fighting with the sceptre's own magic forced an image of him to appear in front of the fleeing crowd.

Ignoring the sweat beading on his brow at how hard it was to use his innate magic Loki spoke softly, "Kneel before me."

The humans seemed panicked and disinclined to acquiest to his request, turning to flee in another direction, so he formed another clone directly in their way again. "I said…"

When the third clone was complete he decided to borrow some of the All-Father's dramatics to lend flair to the performance and finished the sentence at full volume and with a flash of blue light from the sceptre in his hand, "Kneel!"

Silence fell over the plaza and Loki copied Fandral's swagger and smile as he surveyed them. Ignoring the way his clone-images flickered, Loki laughed softly. "Is not this simplier?" He asked, wondering just why he felt like such a fraud with all of their eyes on him.

He walked forwards arms open in greeting, ignoring the winces as he passed the kneeling humans, "Is this not your natural state?" Loki shut down on the senses he would normally use to incite mischief and sense lies as the back lash was giving him a headache and he knew he would need to be capable of fully playing his part when the agents form S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived, as he had no doubt they would.

"It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation." Loki lowered the sceptre to gesture with it. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power…" He broke off drawing in a deep breath as he fought to keep a hold on his own magic, the clone-images flickered and he growled mentally. "For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end…you will always kneel."

Loki felt his eyes grow wide as a frail looking, older male rose silently to his feet and with untold bravery looked directly into his eyes. The human's frame was proud even as age wrought it's tremors on the very heart of him. Loki felt a swell of emotion sell up in him and his hold on his clone-images fell, allowing them to flicker out. Beneath the human's eyes he felt worthless and flinched at the quiet words that disputed his entire purpose. "Not to men like you."

There was a simplicity there that Loki admired, a truth that he could not take away from this human. They old eyes showed that this was a man who had faced pain, faced the very darkness that could drive you insane and was now choosing to face death rather than kneel again. Loki felt cold suddenly, this one man's courage and quiet strength could cause him to fail. He gripped the sceptre tightly with suddenly sweaty palms, he found himself agreeing with the human. This male should bow to no-one.

Even as he lowered the sceptre, free hand starting to reach out a pulse went through the sceptre and he narrowed his eyes. While he may admire this man, the human's defiance could ruin everything. Yet he fought to keep the sceptre by his side, "There are no men like me," he re-joined with a derisive laugh. Mentally he willed the human to just kneel, if the male kneeled he could spare his life.

The human never flinched from holding his gaze. "There are always men like you." There was quiet certainty in the male's voice, a soft dignity and Loki's heart bled for a few moments before he steeled himself as the sceptre pulsed again.

"Look to your elder people," he quipped, raising the sceptre and using it to point at the standing male. He whipped his voice back as it shook, wiping away a single tear from crackled, ice-blue shot, emerald eyes and his grip was white knuckled on the sceptre, "Let him be an example."

The light grew at the end of the sceptre and he watched the old human's eyes widen as the mortal stared down his death, with barely a flinch. Loki's determination wavered for a few seconds before he remembered that it would be the life of this human or his own. As this thought crossed his mind his ice-blue eyes hardened and he felt the power flow through the sceptre even as he held it steadily aimed at the foolish human who clearly deserved to die.

 _ **AN: Go on leave me a review. Please :D**_


	6. Our Solemn Hour

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **Song for the day: 'Addicted' by Kelly Clarkson.**_

 _ **Quote for the day:**_

 _ **Loki: "Is it madness? Is it? IS IT? I don't know what happened on Earth to make you so soft! Don't tell me it was that woman?... Oh, it was. Well maybe, when we're done here, I'll pay her a visit myself! "**_

Chapter Five – Our Solemn Hour.

It seemed Agent Coulson was harder to get a hold of than the metals he had used to create his latest model of the IronMan suit and so after his fifth unsuccessful attempt to reach the bloke Tony had finally grown bored and asked JARVIS to skim through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surface data to find their current location. It wasn't something he indulged in often and if JARVIS stayed within their first two secure layers then they couldn't sense the hacking.

While his A.I. searched through their files Tony prepared himself for what he could possibly face. What he'd read still worried him, but his main concern obviously had to be this so called god intent on taking over the world. Something JARVIS had found caught his attention and he scrolled back through the images on the holographic screen he was observing. Apparently they had a lock on the bad guy and were sending the very patriotic looking Captain America into Germany. He groaned as he rubbed a hand over his head, to him that really didn't sound like such a brilliant idea.

"JARVIS ready the suit and get me the co-ordinates for this Loki Laufeyson," he snapped.

"Yes sir," the A.I. answered even as a soft whir told Tony the suit was ready to go. In barely seconds he was in the air and heading to Germany.

"JARVIS keep an eye on all energy levels," Tony stated, "I really do not fancy a dip in the Atlantic."

"Of course Sir," the A.I. sounded almost put out that he thought it capable of allowing such a thing and Tony snorted as he reached the atmosphere limit that meant he could take the most direct route.

"Sorry JARVIS, I would never doubt you, after all I built you." Tony wondered when his A.I. had developed a sense of humour as dry as his own even as he adjusted his flight path. The A.I. kept him updated with S.H.I.E.L.D. intel and he pushed the suit to maximum when the A.I. also fed him live feed from the German news channel. Apparently this Loki person was a bit mad, also Germany's police force seemed to be doing nothing. It would be up to Captain America then. He swore as the live feed showed Loki Laufeyson exiting a white marble building, chaos surrounding him.

Eyes wide Tony nearly lost control of the suit for the first time since he had made a name for himself in it as the Asgardian pointed the sceptre at an old man who decided to stand up to him. He didn't need JARVIS to tell him that the man was a survivor of the war and found himself becoming very angry at the so called god threatening him.

Even adding a boost to his suit wouldn't get him there in time and he was pleased to see the Captain drop in front of the man to deflect the beam of power. The beeping in his ear warned him it was not a good idea to hold his breath, even when in the suit and he managed to draw in enough oxygen to realise the world had been mildly covered with hazy spots only moments before. "Thanks JARVIS."

The A.I. merely sighed sounding disturbingly like Pepper as the live news feed cut out and Tony got his first hand view of the plaza. Madness had erupted around the Captain and Laufeyson, with the Captain giving nearly as good as he got, but Tony could tell even the super soldier was surprised at the intensity the Asgardian was fighting with. Apparently his fellow American had forgotten that there were others out there who could give him a run in the fitness department. Tony noticed the old man who had defied Loki was staring at the two fighting, lips darkening to blue and a hand on his chest. Eyes wide he had JARVIS hack into the intercoms of the emergency services who had finally arrived. He raised a disbelieving eyebrow at that, seriously he had flown all the way from New York and had gotten there at the same time as them.

"JARVIS I need you to tell them that there is an elderly gentleman caught by the fighting who is suffering a heart attack. If they move slowly they will avoid drawing attention to themselves, but they are to get him out of danger and medical assistance like yesterday. He was the only one who stood up to the current lunatic." He kept a careful eye on the duo fighting as the A.I. managed to relay his instructions to the watching forces.

The Asgardian's pale-blue eyes flickered onto the old man and Tony felt rather than saw the rescue forces freeze in place. His attention was taken fully by the pale-skinned brunette though and he saw the calculated gaze flicker over the frozen humans and the man who still met his eyes in defiance. He felt his eyes widen as Laufeyson deliberately turned his back on the stricken human and engaged the Captain again. "JARVIS, make them move." Tony found himself snapping, "Make them move now!"

Even with the armour he had found himself admiring the Asgardian's grace and power, and for once was annoyed at himself. This was definitely not the time to be thinking of pretty eyes in a face with bone structure so fine any other situation would have had his fellow humans singing praises about the angels. Shaking himself Tony watched as the Captain hit the ground hard and repressed a sigh as the so-called god managed to avoid the weapons from the aircraft that was no doubt piloted by Agent Romanoff.

Loki had felt himself aim the blast of killing energy at the defiant human, had known his aim was true, and believe that Midgard had no true warriors to defend it. So when one of their own, dressed in skin tight armour and baring a brilliantly coloured, round shield landed in front to deflect the blast he had allowed his eyes to widen in surprise. Clint had apparently underestimated the morality of this one. He'd also apparently underestimated the strength of the magic that had poured from the sceptre and groaned as he hit the floor.

"You know the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else we ended up disagreeing." Loki pushed to his feet slowly as the tall, for a human, male spoke clearly and concisely. If he were going to face off against a warrior he had always preferred it to be one with brains. This human may be the closest they had to Thor's build down here, but he was out of time and still managing to live.

So ignoring the humans who had found enough courage to start to rise or shift away he focused all his attention on the one who stood before him. "Ah! The soldier! A man out of time." Loki chuckled to himself, mentally making a note that S.H.I.E.L.D. had definitely not informed Clint of all the information he could make use of.

The human before him merely tilted his head, "I am not the one out of time."

So this human had brains, but wasn't above acting the fool. Interesting. As he dodged the shield thrown at him Loki decided to focus on this fight, after all he needed to be functioning to full distract the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization.

His head snapped to one side with the force of the human's blow and they both stared at each other in measured confusion. While Loki was actually feeling a shred of worry that a simple mortal could hit so hard that it hurt, the mortal was looking at him in disbelief that he wasn't on the floor. Obviously his employers (Loki was aware he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. especially as the flying carriage had fired energy at him only moments before) had failed to inform him of Loki's extra strength. Bad move on their part, but he knew he had but moments to take advantage of the fact.

As he landed a blow that should have broken the mortal's rib cage and also sent him flying Loki was mentally wondering how he could turn this to his advantage. The distraction of his thoughts meant he was left cursing as he had to use the sceptre to deflect the thrown shield and found himself staring into the hard grey eyes of a very determined and not visibly wounded soldier. The fight that followed would be forever remembered by Loki as one of the hardest he had had to endure. With no time available between attacks to focus enough to call on his own magic, the human moving fast enough to avoid his blows, or merely rolling with them when they did connect he did not risk using the magic of the sceptre (and that was ignoring the swooning sickness that flooded through him when he over used the gift's power), Loki was finding himself in a purely physical fight. It was a situation he did not like.

Even so cautious movement caught his attention and he watched as several human's in uniform froze in their attempts to reach the old male who had defied him earlier. His eyes widened as he took in the still dignified gaze, the hand clenched on his chest and the bluish lips. He could not deny such a worthy opponent medical treatment and so turned his back to those attempting to rescue him and took a blow to the stomach for his troubles. This human soldier was fast becoming dangerous and as he was still not fully recovered from his travel through the worm hole Loki knew he had to find a way to end this fight quickly.

Suddenly a loud, almost music like voice filled the air and Loki found himself distracted by the source. The flying, weaponised carriage seemed to almost droop and his opponent also looked around distracted. Readying himself to land a blow to end the fight Loki was taken by surprise when he was hit in the chest by a light of extreme force. He had realised the human's controlled any magic. Stars filled his vision for a few moments, followed dangerously by black patches as he fought to stay consciousness. When he finally pulled himself into a seated position on the steps he had landed on and looked up he was confronted by a humanoid metal form pointing what were obviously weapons at him, as he watched and tried to get his scattered thoughts back together the human soldier joined it, shield firmly in place.

"Make your move Reindeer Games." Okay so the humans had created golems out of metal that could talk.

Loki mentally swore as he realised not only was his brain still not working from his hit with that blast of power, but his limbs felt wobbly and the sceptre was lying too far away to even contemplating reaching. Apparently his distraction was going to be that he was taken prisoner.

Left with little logical choice he let his armour fade until he was in his traditional Asgardrian garb and raised his hands.

"Good move." The action seemed to pacify the golem which sheathed its weapons and took one step back. A glance at the soldier proved that the human member of the team was not taking any chances. The jaw remained set and the eyes were hard as they observed him. Loki mentally swore, remembering Clint's dialogue on just what the soldier had been created for.

Tony had JARVIS take control of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fighter craft when it was obvious Romanoff would be attempting another shot at the so-called god, regardless of whether Captain America was in the way. He ran a metal hand over his helmed head as he realised he was actually going to have to play nicely with S.H.I.E.L.D. the tune his A.I. had decided to blast through any speaker his system could hack into made him smile slightly, he had always loved a bit of AC/DC and Shoot to Thrill was a personal favourite. It had added bonus of distracting everyone and so shooting off a saucy comment to Agent Romanoff Tony lowered himself into the vision of the two combatants and let loose with two medium powered energy repulsors at Laufeyson. He blinked as the Asgardrian was thrown to land on steps, okay so while bullets couldn't touch the dude, simple energy could. With the threat down for a few moments he hauled the Captain to his feet and stood with weapons raised waiting for the so-called god to focus.

The easy surrender had not been expected, but as he took in Captain America's steely gaze he suspected he wasn't the only one not fooled. Taking a chance with the Asgardrian looking rather shaken Tony turned back to JARVIS as the S.H.I.E.L.D. craft landed and Loki was taken into custody. His A.I. confirmed his suspicions that the sceptre which had flown from Laufeyson's grasp was emitting not only a small amount of Gamma radiation but a different form of energy alongside it. The look in the Asgardrian's eyes had Tony waiting for approval from Agent Romanoff before collecting the sceptre he had been examining, the longer he could keep the god thinking he was a controlled construct the longer they had the chance of using IronMan as a backup if things went as wrong as his instincts were telling him were going to happen.

A glance into the craft showed Tony Laufeyson's gaze was firmly fixed on the red-haired, Russian agent and so he grabbed Captain America's elbow. Grey eyes fixed on the mask and widened at the silent question Tony had wondered if the other could sense.

"Don't worry Stark, I will keep an eye on him." It was only thanks to the advanced hearing of his suit Tony caught those words and so he forced himself to remain still until he was called upon the air-craft by the soldier. It was going to be a long ride back to S.H.I.E.L.D.

 _ **AN: Leave me a review please. I would love to know what you think.**_


	7. Shot in the Dark

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **AN: I have Pimms and beer induced sun burn from yesterday. I look like a lady of leisure. Lovely floppy straw hat, over sized sun glasses, pretty dress and a nice umbrella to keep the sun off my dainty skin.**_

 _ **Song for the day: Cover version of 'All About Us' by Aleksandr_SHtern.**_

 _Quote for the day:_

 _James 'Bucky' Barnes: [looking down a long and steep zip line they'll soon be traveling] "Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone on Coney Island?"_

 _Steve Rogers: "Yeah, and I threw up?"_

 _James 'Bucky' Barnes: "This isn't payback, is it?"_

 _Steve Rogers: [grinning] "Now why would I do that?"_

 _ **LovesDragons: Well Tony did his best, but for the sake of you still liking me he did get the help he needed. See I never thought getting captured and sitting quietly there like a good little boy was in his nature, so no it was not something he planned. Oh I surmised he was plenty surprised but hid it well, after all he had a lifetime of hiding his emotions.**_

Chapter Six – Shot in the Dark.

Loki glanced around the interior of the flying vehicle they had taken him aboard. While he was firmly strapped in he had a distinct feeling of unease at the thought of being so high, while traveling at such speeds with someone else at the controls. He had not believed humans capable of such technology, not even when he had seen such marvels in Clint's mind. He shook his head softly, that was certainly a strange thought, that he Loki had developed the All-Father's habit of searching, literally, through someone's mind and private thoughts. His brow furrowed softly as he stared at the unmoving metal golem that was now paying no attention to anything going on around it, he had always thought it petty and had always been uneasy around the Asgardrian king when he did so, but he had found himself doing the same thing with little thought as to the bow-man's sanity. He shuddered slightly at the thought of becoming anything like the one who had lied to him all his life and narrowed his eyes at the strange glow in the centre of the golem's chest. He knew he had information in his mind about this creature in front of him, he also knew that the information was important, however that energy bolt had obviously done more than send him flying because he couldn't remember the details.

The soldier shifted beside him distracting him from his thoughts and Loki turned bored eyes on him. The man was clearly uncomfortable at being in the air and yet he had made no outward sign of discomfort until the vehicle had shuddered drastically.

He barely had time to wonder as to why the flying vehicle had shuddered when fork lightening lit up the night sky, followed by a mighty roll of thunder. He knew he had let his emotions show when the soldier turned away from communicating with the metal golem to ask rather patronisingly if he was scared of a little lightening.

Unable to see any harm in giving a truthful answer Loki shook his head keeping his eyes fixed on the windows, "I am not overly fond of what follows."

Even trying to keep calm he could hear the hitch in his voice and mentally swore when the metal golem turned its head to peer at him. The fact the brainless humanoid was the only person on the flying vehicle to notice brought him little relief as his brief study of the rituals used to create such animated anthropomorphic beings had led him to believe the controller would know everything their creation learnt. He tilted his head as he examined the red and gold metal of the golem, this one seemed particularly lifelike in its intelligence, almost as if it had a conscience and higher brain functions, and not merely a creation held together and animated by magic.

Another flash of lightening drew his attention back to the serious issue of Thor actually showing up. The red-haired female who was piloting the flying vehicle had seemed surprised and alarmed by the sudden storm and along with the feel of concentrated magic in the air Loki knew his adopted brother was close. He shut his eyes as the transport lurched again, willing his stomach to settle and breathed deeply through his nose. The clunk of the golem moving had him opening his eyes in time to see Thor himself land on tailgate the creature had opened. He watched with wide eyes as the metal one ignored the call of the soldier to confront a very angry looking Thor.

If he had been given time to think he would have been surprised by the almost defensive stance of the creature, but as it was he could only stare as Mjölnir connected with the creature's chest and it went flying. Before he had blinked he found himself torn from the safety harness he had been strapped into when they had manhandled him onto the flying machine and hanging in Thor's grasp. He gasped as his collar tightened, restricting his airflow momentarily, hiding a wince at the raw anger he could see in bright blue eyes. He had barely time to register that he was moving without his consent when he was suddenly free-falling through storm clouds. Terror raced through him at the thought of falling into blackness again and he gripped at Thor's elbows in desperation. The blonde fool was determined to give him a heart attack.

%

Tony grumbled softly to Jarvis as he found himself flying through the air, while inside a plane. That had certainly never been the plan and he would be having words with the trickster Asgardrian when he fetched his pale ass back. He grunted as he hit the back of the pilot's chair, calling an apology to Agent Romanoff when she gasped at the impact. He was starting to get annoyed with everything now. First the dark haired one had kicked the Captain's arse, or had been well on his way to, then he had seeming given up the fight with only one blast from his repulsors. He had expected an actual fight and so had decided to play dumb until he could figure out what this Loki's end game was. Jarvis had relayed his suspicions to Romanoff for him and she had drawn the Captain into a discussion about it while he had kept an eye on their prisoner. He's watched the male size them all up, and had seen when his original dismissal of the suit had changed to minor interest. Then things had gone more tits up than he had expected, and sooner as well.

Tony eyed the wires on the ceiling for several seconds as he tried to calm his anger down, the blonde guy had been unexpected, but he had heard the dude land on the outside of the jet while it was flying and Jarvis' readings had warned him the jet was losing power due to the storm. He pushed to his feet a little ungainly thanks to the suit's mechanics and growled low as he eyed the storm he could see through the exit ramp. Blondie had just taken someone who was of interest to him and Tony really disliked people taking what was his.

"Now there's that guy," he breathed out not expecting a response.

Agent Romanoff answered him, "Another Asgardrian?"

Even the Captain had something to say, "That guy's a friendly?" The disbelief was evident in his breathless voice, and oops Tony hadn't realised he'd clattered into the super soldier.

Tony rolled his eyes even as he walked forwards, "Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him the Tesseract is lost."

"Stark we need a plan of attack." See this was why Tony really dislike army people.

"I have a plan, attack." Short sweet and he was gone, stepping out into the raging storm and allowing himself to hurtle ground wards, he used the suit to pick up the energy signature he'd taken from Loki.

%

Loki was actually surprised when he hit the ground hard and first, centuries of Thor taking the hits for him lending a sort of complacency that shattered as if it was the rock under him. He felt what little breath he'd managed to hold onto after that leap leave him in a rush and his concentration was suddenly on trying to draw enough air back into his lungs. He felt himself chuckle as he realised that while he was bruised he hadn't broken anything and from the feel of the rest of him, the fact his head was pain free was a blessing. He didn't bother moving until Thor actually spoke.

"Where is the Tesseract?" Oh boy was his adoptive brother pissed. He hadn't heard that tone since the time the blonde had been called princess.

Wincing he tried to play for time to gather his thoughts and what little strength he could. "Oh I missed you too." Apparently he shouldn't laugh, not only because he hurt, but because it merely annoyed Thor further.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" The growl in the larger male's tone shocked him and Loki started to push himself upwards.

From Thor's stance he needed to start talking and soon, he really didn't want to find out just how much damage Mjölnir could do to him. The ground on this planet seemed to dislike him enough without Thor breaking bones. "You should thank me," he managed to get out struggling to a sitting position, "With the Bifrost gone how much dark energy did the All-father have to muster to conjure you here?" Okay so he was snappy when in pain, sue him.

Grunting he started to lever himself to his feet, grace and elegance pushed to one side for movements that were less painful. He glanced at a seemingly frozen Thor and decided if he was going to die this night he might as well get one more dig in, "Your precious Earth."

Well that final dig got him upright, but he was unable to focus on the face of a livid Thor was the pain of something cracking in several places hit at once. Apparently the blonde hadn't got the memo that hitting the ground at that speed hurt. Despite not wishing to he found himself once again staring at Thor, the large hand grasping his hair making it impossible to look elsewhere. He felt confusion well up as the anger on Thor's face was replaced by a look of grieved-relief.

His confusion didn't last long as the blonde explained, "I thought you dead."

There was definitely a waver in that powerful voice and Loki felt himself thaw just a little, "Did you mourn?"

The open honesty on Thor's face was painful to look at, yet try as he might he couldn't tear his eyes away as the larger male responded. "We all did. Our father…"

And suddenly any compassion he felt was gone. How dare Thor bring up that man. "Your father!" he found himself snapping. Suddenly Thor's hand on the back of his head felt unbearable and he slapped it away, putting distance between them would be a good thing. The cold seemed to swirl in his chest as he remembered falling through blackness.

"He did tell you my true parentage did he not?" Loki found the ability to walk away hampered somewhat by the stinging bruises that ran down his back. He winced and placed a hand on them, momentarily forgetting just how much energy his own magic was taking to use. The knowledge he couldn't even heal himself did not improve his temper. Nor did Thor's next words.

"We were raised together. We played together. We fought together." The strangely quiet tone showed the blonde's emotional pain, but the memories of pain, being lost in the cold and dark overshadowed any memories that could have let Loki relate. Thor went on oblivious to the rage that was rising. "Do you remember none of that?"

Loki stopped, allowing his hands to fall limp to his sides as he turned to face the one he had once called brother. "I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your greatness." He felt his voice break and blamed the anger, decided Thor needed to hurt as he once had. "I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!"

The clear anger in his words would have once made the blonde warrior back away, now though it seemed he had gained a spine from somewhere and despite the waver in his voice threw back darts that, had his heart not been hardened, would have driven Loki to his knees. "So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?"

Despite telling himself he cared nothing for Thor's opinion Loki found himself taking a step back, eyes locked on the larger male's approaching form. "No!" Loki found himself wondering when the other had become so sure of everything without Loki to back him up. "The Earth is under my protection, Loki."

So anger wasn't working to bring the blonde oaf down to size. Loki allowed himself to laugh bitterly, "And you are doing a marvellous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, and why should I not?"

Loki scowled as Thor cut across him, "You think yourself above them?"

He opened his mouth to tell him that he didn't just think it, he was above them, he had a grand speech in his mind but found himself muttering a confused, "Well yes."

Now there was sympathy on Thor's face and Loki found himself curling his hands into fists as the other talked, "Then you have missed the truth of ruling brother. The throne would suit you ill."

Even as he responded with a snarl and a fist to Thor's chest Loki found himself ashamed of his response. He was the clever one, it was he who had gained the nickname Silvertongue, he who should be winning this battle of wits, but once again Thor was proving himself to be a true Odinson and with every sentence he uttered Loki felt more worthless than he had ever done.

He stalked away from Thor's overbearing presence and looked out at the treetops, "I have seen worlds you have never known about," anger settled cold and hard in his veins as he remembered, "I have grown Odinson in my exile." He whirled to face Thor who had followed him slowly wondering just when he had learned to sound so venomous. "I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it…"

He watched Thor's eyes widen and mentally cursed as realisation came to those bright blue eyes. He should have known Thor would notice he wasn't using magic, but that was the least of his worries as the words flooded from the blonde, "Who has shown you this power?" The angry concern made little sense until Thor spoke again, "Who controls the would-be king?"

Loki felt himself snarl again as Thor invaded his space, whether at the words of the assumption he didn't know. "I am a king!"

He had the satisfaction of watching that single barb hit home before he was grabbed by the shoulders and shaken, "Not here!" Thor's voice had reached battle pitch and Loki found himself mentally cowering as the blonde continued. "You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!" Loki found a small part of himself wanted to tell Thor everything and throw himself at the blonde's mercy. The warm hand at the back of his neck and the softening of his once-brother's features made this urge stronger, "You come home!"

Loki shut his eyes against the tears and conviction he saw in Thor's brilliant blue ones. That single line was enough to prove to him the other didn't understand, would never understand. Yet all the same he decided to depart a small portion of the truth. "I don't have it."

Just like that the switch was thrown and he watch distrust and anger cloud Thor's eyes, when Mjölnir flew to the blonde's hand Loki decided he needed to talk fast. "You need the cube to bring me home, but I have sent it off I know not where."

Loki sucked in a breath and leant back slightly as Mjölnir was pointed at him, "You listen well brother…Ooof!"

Loki blinked at the space Thor had previously occupied and he blamed relief for his atrocious comment, "I am listening."

%

Tony narrowed his eyes as he finally caught sight of the duo he had tracked. The first thing he noticed was that Loki seemed to almost glow in the moonlight, the second was that the blonde bloke was threatening him with that hammer thing and the trickster was currently dangerously close to the edge of a sheer cliff. He huffed, "Time to show blondie why you don't take my stuff."

He hit the blonde with some force, grinning as he felt the air leave his lungs, and sent them crashing into the forest below. The blonde hit the ground hard, grunting as he bounced slightly, and Tony was too relieved he'd kept his own feet to pay the bouncing to much attention, although a mental note was made to examine that later.

As the blonde staggered to his feet Tony risked raising the face plate of his helmet. Apparently he had underestimated the guy's size and recovery for he was talking, "Do not touch me again!"

Well blunt and to the point. Tony could work with that, "Then don't take my stuff."

That seemed to anger the blonde further, "You have no idea what you are dealing with."

Okay so the guy spoke in statements. Tony risked a glance over his shoulder, carefully keeping his face angled so as Loki couldn't see the human skin. "Er…Shakespeare in the park." He mentally winced at the look he was thrown, but then he had never claimed to be sane and grinned as he struck a pose, "Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?"

"This is beyond you metal man." Tony resisted the urge to face palm, he'd done that once with the suit and the suit always came off best.

"Loki will face Asgardrian justice!"

The guy seemed deadly serious so Tony tried a compromise, "He gives up the cube he's all yours." The face plate shut and he delivered the coup-de-grace. "Until then, stay outa the way."

Apparently calling the blonde a tourist was the wrong thing to say because he found himself once again flying backwards curtesy of that hammer. As he crashed through a tree several of his displays lit up in warning and he found that the anger he had tapered into annoyance flared again. If the blonde hippy dude wanted a fight then IronMan wouldn't walk away.

%

By the time Loki had managed to find a spot where he could see what was happening his brother was facing off against the metal golem and for a moment Loki felt a flash of sympathy for the magic-made creature as it was sent flying. Thor had been a warrior all of his life and something that didn't have its own brain would never win against him. The cocky grin on Thor's face only made the surprised glee so much better when the metal golem not only got back up, but landed a blow with one of its energy beams, sending the warrior flying. Loki's eyes widened as he remembered the stance the creature had taken when he was captured, perhaps this was an anthropomorph that had been created purely for battle.

He lowered himself to a more comfortable position, taking a few moments to rest before trying to get away wouldn't hurt and the show was rather good. The metal golem seemed to be able to take damage as well as dish it out, and he had to hold back from cheering either of the combatants on. After all he didn't actually want either to win, but deep down he didn't want either to be hurt or damaged too badly. Despite his anger and hurt at Thor the blonde had been his lifelong companion, and the metal anthropomorph was a lesson in joyous magics.

He gasped in astonishment as the golem staggered under a lightning bolt that should have fried all its inherent magics before drawing its shoulders back and literally sending Thor flying backwards with its energy beams.

Just when he thought the fight couldn't get more interesting, after all how often did he see people fighting in the air, the blue dressed soldier landed in a roll, his voice echoing powerfully, "Hey!" Oh look he throws the shield at others as well, "That's enough!"

Even at the distance he was Loki found he could hear every word the soldier spoke, "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here…"

Thor interrupted and Loki thought even those hard of hearing could have caught every word, "I have come to put an end to Loki's schemes."

Loki winced where he was partially hidden behind an outcrop, then flinched as the movement stretched bruises. He nearly missed the soldier's next words, but came to the understanding that for once Thor wasn't being taken at face value.

The golem was raising its hands and shaking its head, "Yeah no, bad call he loves his hammer."

Thor didn't appear to take kindly to either the golem's words or the mistrust of the soldier and soon the golem was flying backwards again. Loki realised even as Thor was launching into an attack that it was a momentously stupid manoeuvre and his eyes widened as the soldier merely ducked beneath his shield. Seconds before the hammer made contact he stuffed his fingers in his ears and ducked fully behind the rock. Even with his eyes screwed shut, protected by the rocky outcrop, and with ears carefully blocked the sound and force of rapidly moving air had him reeling. Once again he found himself lying on solid rock and gasping for air.

When his senses came back to him he suddenly realised that staying had been a bad move and he needed to leave several human time-frames earlier. As disorientated as he was he failed to hear the metal golem land behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice spoke, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Spinning suddenly, every mental shield he could grab hold of in place Loki found himself staring at the energy weapons the golem used. Thor and the soldier were no-where to be seen and yet the energy to actually make a fight for his freedom seemed to vanish. He allowed himself to sag. "Please tell me that where ever you are taking me has ice packs."

The metal construction seemed to measure him up. "The jet will," it agreed cautiously, "But that means you have to let me carry you back up to it."

%

Tony watched the Asgardrian mull over his words. The slender male would be coming back with him one way or another, but since he would get little chance to make choices on the Helicarrier he decided to give the dude a break. He ignored Jarvis informing him that the man's energy signature seemed warped and watched ice-blue eyes size him up.

"Very well, I shall remain in your captivity." Tony grumbled internally as he realised he would have to carry the other male in a bridal hold.

"Come on the Reindeer Games, it's all over but the shouting."

From the sullen silence on the jet Tony didn't expect a response to that barb. As it was Loki's drawled, "I must congratulate your master on such excellent magical control in creating such a fascinating animated anthropomorphic being," nearly ended up with him dropping the Asgardrian.

He managed to control the response, merely landed in the jet and shoved the other into his seat with probably more force than was necessary, strapped him in and nearly threw the ice packs at him. He stomped up to stand behind Agent Romanoff's chair and glowered at Jarvis' laughter in his ear. At least the mask hid his blush.

 _ **AN: Please leave me a review and let me know what you think.**_


	8. Empty Eyes

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **AN: I am disliking telecommunications today. So tempted to unplug the phone. Time to turn the music right up I think. Also I have solder burns on my fingers, last time I help my brother with his toys.**_

 _Quote for the day:_

" _Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it." – Patricia A. Mckillip._

 _ **Song for the day: 'Bad Girlfriend' by Theory of a Deadman.**_

 _ **LovesDragons: I am beginning to think that is everyone's favourite line. I must just like to be different because I want to slap Loki for it. Yeah it is hard to leave, bear in mind Loki has never seen his brother beaten before. I don't want to be in the blast radius when that happens.**_

Chapter Seven – Empty Eyes.

After his already bruised back made contact with the hard jet seat Loki had decided that until he could get a better handle on the mortals present his best course of action was to remain still and quiet. At least the magical construct had remembered the ice packs, and with some wiggling he managed to get them under his armour and sighed in relief as they eased his skin. The worry he'd had that the cold would trigger his Jotun side was banished as his skin remained white, despite the slight silvery markings that appeared momentarily on his hands. He closed his eyes against Thor's piercing gaze and thought back over everything that had occurred since he had made it to Midgard.

%

Tony was running equations across the displays inside the suit, while getting Jarvis to dig up any information he could find on golems and magical constructs. He needed to know if these were something he would have to worry about with the Asgardrian magic user in their midst. He ignored the fact he was sort of flattered at someone noticing his genius in the wave of disgust that flooded over him that it was Loki who had noticed. His background reading on Norse mythology meant he had a small selection of information on the two so-called gods on the jet. There were several things he wished to know were true, but what he had gathered was that Loki was the brains and Thor the brawn, he didn't know what had caused the split, as there were some files of S.H.I.E.L.D. he hadn't dared hack before doing a job for them, the ones he had gotten into told him little other than what was in the package Agent Coulson had brought him.

The change in pressure warned him they were landing and he snapped away from that chain of thoughts and focused on the two Asgardrians. Jarvis was muttering information into his ear and his displays were still running data, but Tony nodded slightly, barely moving the suit's helmet and stepped between a worried looking Thor and a meditating Loki as the Quin-jet touched down. In the same silence that had filled the jet after retrieving Loki Captain America dragged the dark haired Asgardrian to his feet as Tony trained his repulsors on the blonde.

%

Loki had found himself pulled from his memories by hard hands on his biceps and his eyes widened momentarily at the sight of the magical construct standing between Thor and himself. The anger in Thor's bright blue eyes had him going silently with the soldier and allowing the strange handcuffs to be placed around his wrists. He reached for his magic to help him charm the guards slightly, but even as they took him away from the soldier he swayed with the effort. He wouldn't be trying that trick again he decided and settled for merely watching those around him. They were stern faced and hard eyed, probably not easily swayed after what he had done to their comrades. If he had had the sceptre then escape would have been a possibility, as it was he would have to wait for his rescue and that galled him somewhat.

Apparently the cell they were leading him to meant a long walk and he decided if he slowed his pace he had time to take more in. His senses told him the craft they were on was in the air, but was much larger than the one the golem had told him was a jet. Actually the longer he had to walk for the more impressed he was that a thing of such size could get in the air, let alone stay there. The vehicle was full of mortals working on huge screens, some of which flashed information up more quickly than he could take in and the air was full of a dull drone of at least fifty voices all talking quietly. Loki shook his head slowly, Thor was going to be a nervous wreck once he encountered this, because Loki knew he sure as Helheim that it unnerved him. That many mortals would make his escape a little more awkward, but he had complete faith in the skills of a one Agent Clint Barton he had under his control.

Loki managed to glance up as they were approaching what seemed to be a research facility of some kind and allowed himself a mental fist pump at the sight of the mortal he recognised as a one Doctor Banner. A few mind games should get him the distraction he would need to get free and so he waited until the Doctor looked up and held eye contact for a few seconds longer than was polite before grinning charmingly at the mortal. The Doctor didn't back down and Loki found himself blinking first as dark brown eyes stared into him. He hunched his shoulders slightly as the air locking doors finally shut the Doctor from his view and shuddered, how such warm eyes could seemingly strip him down to his soul he would never understand. He had gotten the impression that Doctor Banner was much stronger mentally than any he had previously come across. Somehow he doubted the mind tricks would work.

The sight of his accommodation for his stay on the vessel brought him up short and he glared at it with deep disgust. Apparently privacy was not something that he could be afforded, nor was there even going to be an opportunity to mess with people's heads. He groaned in relief as the shackles were taken from his wrist, snarling as he was nearly flung into the clear room. Humans really needed to learn their place.

%

Tony had waited only until the doors shut behind Loki before he had broken the stared-off with Thor and walked away from the Quin-jet. He had a suit to look at, lightning may have boosted his power levels but he didn't need the displays to tell him that a couple of the connections had objected to such electrical surges. Damn Asgardrians and their toys that Tony would never understand. He waved off the offer of a guide and headed straight to the workshops on the third level. Right now he didn't need the company of other humans, and working on his suit would get the sight of ice-blue eyes widened in surprise out of his head. He should also probably phone Pepper.

Removing the suit took little time, and soon he found himself confronted with the mess his fight with Thor had left. He groaned as he realised that this was going to take a lot more work that he had previously thought. Grumbling softly to himself he slipped in a Bluetooth earpiece and patched back into Jarvis, his holographic computer screen was playing up and so as Jarvis informed him of the information he had gathered on golems, constructs and the like Tony made a few adjustments before sliding it into place in front of his eye.

"Yes. Thank you Jarvis," he muttered, "What is the probability we would have to face something like this controlled by Loki's magic?"

"Without previous statistics to go off it is hard to say Sir," Tony rolled his eyes at Jarvis' apologetic tone, but allowed his AI to talk unhindered as he laid the suit out on the work bench. "However, from the magics used by Mr. Laufeyson I would suspect that creating an animated anthropomorphic being and maintaining said construct would be beyond his current capabilities."

"Huh?" Tony scratched his head as he carefully hammered out a dint in his chest plate, "How do you mean Jarvis? The guy is pretty scary." If he couldn't admit that to Jarvis then he had no-one he could trust. Besides knowing his creator was nervous around someone would mean the AI paid them a lot more attention.

"Well Sir, Mr. Laufeyson is currently wielding a power that is not his own, and bar the holographic images in Stuttgart he does not appear to be using his own power." The AI sounded almost like Pepper when she was gearing up for a rant. Oh yeah,he needed to phone Pepper. Making a mental not to phone her shortly Tony replayed what Jarvis had just told him.

"Yes Jarvis, but just because he hasn't doesn't mean he cannot right? God dammit stupid God of Thunder, wires are not supposed to do that!" Tony shook his hand as the supposedly dead wires in the chest plate sparked and burnt the back of his hand. "Sorry J go on please."

"Yes Sir. I recorded the energy signature of those holograms and the longer they were in place the more Mr. Laufeyson began to waver. I then thought to scan Mr. Laufeyson himself as you had suggested a way to track him and found that there was only a tiny percentage of the energy signature he put out that was compatible to the holograms."

The AI paused and Tony stopped what he was doing, welding torch lax in his grip, as he thought that over. "So what power is he using if not his…the spear?"

"Yes Sir. The rest of his energy signature was compatible with the sceptre."

Tony rolled his eyes as the AI corrected him and snapped goggles over his eyes to fix the crack that Thor had caused in the stomach area of the suit. "Pedantic J," he mumbled, "But what about before, when he and Thor decided to go sky diving without a 'chute?"

He supposed he should be thankful that Jarvis understood him through the screwdriver in his mouth, "I believe that somehow the sceptre's energy has bound Mr. Laufeyson's own Sir."

Tony spat the screwdriver out and coughed slightly, "Excuse me? What?"

"Mr. Laufeyson's energy is being trapped by a different kind Sir. Also there is a weakness in the left knee joint of the suit Sir."

"Hmmm so he has allowed his own power to be bound so he can have mind control and a spear that shoots energy. That seems rather stupid…" Tony trailed off as he examined the joint Jarvis had pointed out, "Hmmm hydraulics are a bit fried. J remind me to really punch Thor at some point."

"I have made a note of that Sir. I believe there is something you may wish to watch Sir."

Tony raised his other eyebrow as the AI changed the subject. "Very well patch it through Jarvis."

It took several moments to realise what he was seeing, but when he did Tony carefully placed his tools on the work bench and stepped away from the suit. "Jarvis have you hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance while I am on board?" He hissed.

"Yes Sir now be quite and listen."

Tony learnt a lot in the few minutes Fury was confronting Loki and rubbed a hand across his brow, barely feeling the oil he smudged there. Fury was definitely pissed, and for once showing actual emotion, that in itself was alarming. What was more alarming was the fact the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was rising to the traps Loki was setting and not realising it. "Damn it Jarvis."

"Just watch Sir."

Tony suddenly saw red. "Oh hell no!" he growled loudly, fist slamming into the table under his hand and making metal jump. "He did not just say that."

"Yes Sir I believe he did." Tony took a deep breath at the apologetic tone his AI was using.

"My apologises J," he muttered turning back to the suit with lightly shaking hands. "I've changed my mind about who I wish to punch. After all I wouldn't have gotten into a fist fight with the God of Thunder if Loki hadn't shown up."

"Of course Sir, I will change the note to punch Mr. Laufeyson when you get a chance Sir."

"Thanks J, you're the best." Tony found himself smiling softly as he went back to fixing the suit and running over the data flashing on the tiny screen in front of his left eye. "Oh and J?"

"Yes Sir?"

"I would stop calling him Laufey's son. Somehow I think that will go down as well as Odinson."

"Sir? Are you suggesting that Mr…Loki would ever interact with me."

Tony chuckled at the nervous tone he hadn't realised the AI could project. "While I am not intending to invite him around for cocktails J, I wouldn't put it passed the slippery bugger to find a way to the tower if he ever finds out Stark Industries is involved with the creation of this suit."

"Sir!" Okay J sounded pained, "Please allow me to activate emergency protocols if he ever shows his face."

"Oh J," Tony sighed, catching sight of a shadow moving behind him in the stainless steel. "I give you full permission to protect any and every one in that tower if he does ever show up there. I'll even let them know it was all your idea."

"Thank you Sir," Now Jarvis merely sounded relieved and Tony relaxed slightly, "Oh and Sir Agent Coulson is behind you."

Tony laughed out loud, "Thank you Jarvis."

Turning he eyed the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had dragged him into this mess. "Coulson, what can I do for you?"

The suited man looked up, wry smile on his face. "Well met Stark, I couldn't stand to watch the feed of Fury being played by our…erm…guest and so I came to find the only person I know on the helicarrier who is always a sarcastic, irritating bugger."

Tony grunted in surprise, "You heard what he said about Doctor Banner as well then?"

Coulson tilted his head and sighed, "I want to wring his delightfully pale neck."

Tony laughed harshly, "I think you may have to get in line. From what I have read of the interaction at your HQ, Hill and Romanoff are before you."

Coulson huffed and pulled out a stool by the work bench, "Hey I'm the one who had to deal with the aftermath of his first foray into madness."

Tony eyed the Agent and made an abortive gesture. "Ah. New Mexico was his doing?"

"Yes…stupid if you think about it. We ended up with all these problems because of a family rift."

"Damn Coulson, I really don't envy you your job." Tony made a note of the tired lines around the agent's eyes. "Tell you what since Pepper seems to like you, why don't I show you some of the less classified parts of the suit."

Eyes flew to his and Tony smiled slightly at the child at Christmas look the normally unflappable agent was wearing. "You…Why would you do that?"

"You look like you need a distraction, and believe me when I say you also look like you are at the point where if you don't get one you are going to do something stupid."

"Show me!"

Tony's laughter was loud and he didn't bother to hide the grin on his face. Coulson, he knew, would appreciate any technology he showed him for its invention alone not what use it could be…that would come later for the agent. As he reached for one of his gauntlets Tony thought that the agent's unbridled joy in learning the tech might help wash the memory of Loki's praise away.

 _ **AN: How did I do? Please feel free to leave me a review.**_


	9. Memories

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **An: Tony had plenty of time to read up on people's history and when his search through S.H.I.E.L.D. files brought him little on Thor or Loki he decided to get Jarvis to do some background research. With his AI's help he found out that in Norse mythology Loki is not actually Odin's son and so calls him by his true father's name. Of course, when Jarvis gets him into Thor's files in S.H.I.E.L.D. he also finds out that neither name is the best to call the Asgardrian.**_

 _Quote for the day: (Yes we are back to Marvel.)_

 _Sam Wilson: "41st floor! 41st!"_

 _Nick Fury_ _: "It's not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building."_

 _ **Song for the day: 'Lips of an Angel' by Hinder.**_

 _ **LovesDragons: He is trying bless his soul, he really is. Yes that may probably be a better idea, but how do you truely know they aren't lulling you into a false sense of security.**_

Chapter Eight – Memories.

Loki barely had time to reassemble his masks when the large, leather-wearing, eye-patched male he had thought Clint had killed walked into the platform around the outside of his clear cell. Loki flinched as once again the image of the All-Father superimposed itself on the male. This one seemed to be everything Loki had feared as a child, Heimdall's all-seeing, and Odin's power rolled into one, with a streak of Thor's stubbornness thrown in for good measure. Seeing him alive made Loki also add his own sheer will to survive and slyness to the mix. He shuddered despite his masks the mortal was a rare one in the entirety of the realms let alone on Midgard, if it wasn't for years of practise and a memory of a threat Loki would have been tempted to give up there and then. It certainly would make his eyes easier.

The glass surrounding him allowed a small reflection and he found that focusing on the blue of his own eyes made the other male slightly less. He couldn't think of a word, but the lessness made him able to more focus on what he needed to do.

The human was the first to talk, giving him a small moment of control over the situation and Loki had to smile at the thought of someone knowing the rules of the game. Well at least until he heard the words falling from the mortal's lips.

"In case it's unclear," there was a pause and Loki watched the man walk to a control panel of some description. The human didn't even glance at him as he went on, "You try to escape." Loki found himself walking to the edge of the cell and the mortal pressed something, "You so much as scratch that glass."

Loki heard whirring and almost without his own consent he looked down and found himself staring into a wind tossed cloud bank. Mind blank with terror he kept staring even as the human started talking again. "Thirty thousand feet! Straight down in a steel trap." He vaguely made a note that the other male didn't need to shout to be heard over the wind, "You get how that works?"

Loki looked up in time to see the human press a different button and offered a small, silent prayer of relief as the wind cut off and the floor closed again. That may complicate things slightly, before he could dwell the human was talking again, "Ant…Boot." Loki growled as his own words were thrown back at him as the human gestured.

The mortal looked up and he forced himself to laugh lowly, stepping back from the glass and staring at his own reflection. "It is an impressive cage," he managed passed his terror closed throat, "but not built I think, for me." He hated how his voice still sounded breathless and so made a gesture to change the focus of attention until he could calm his heart rate.

The mortal inclined his head in agreement, "Built for something a lot stronger than you."

That gave Loki an opening, yet it was only due to his years of practice his voice now came out smooth, "Oh I have heard." He turned and stared at what he assumed was a watching device for the cell. "A mindless beast." He had no doubts that others were watching, hopefully even the doctor. "Makes play he is still a man." Loki swallowed, mentally beseeching the gods to let this work. "How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

Loki spun back and faced the mortal, suddenly all fear of this human was gone washed away in his own disgust at such weakness.

The mortal's voice sounded low and loud around the cell. "How desperate am I?"

Loki didn't move, barely breathed even as he realised he may actually get some workable answers.

"You threaten my world with war," the human stepped forward and Loki fought with himself to stay still.

"You steal a force you cannot hope to control," Loki got the idea the mortal wasn't actually talking about the Tesseract and made a mental note that one of those under his control may yet have the power to break free.

"You talk about peace and you kill 'coz it is fun." Loki felt himself flinch slightly, mentally grumbling at the pain his back still gave him. He had never killed because it was fun. Never and that mortal dared judge him, dared hold him to his own pathetic standards. He raised his head to respond but still the human talked.

"You have made me very desperate," there was a tone Loki couldn't place in the human's voice before the male gathered his control and stared directly at him, "You might not be glad that you did."

Loki swallowed as he went through the motions, this human needed to be taken out and quickly if his plan were to succeed. He hummed, "Oh, it burns you to have come so close," he taunted.

The human was good he decided watching the barely visible twitch of muscle in the powerful jaw. He pushed further, "To have the tesseract, to have power."

That got a reaction and Loki stepped back with a smirk, "Unlimited power!"

He allowed his voice to deepen, "And for what?" If he mocked this human enough something had to give, "A warm light for all mankind to share."

He knew his voice was almost crooning now and to his surprise that tone struck the mortal more than the sarcasm or anger ever had, "And then to be reminded what real power is."

Even before he'd finished the words Loki knew he had miscalculated. The human stared at him for a few seconds before grunting in humour and allowing a smirk over his very serious face. Loki found himself entranced as the skin around the man's good eye wrinkled easily, indicating someone who had once laughed easily. He wondered just when that had changed for the human in front of him and sagged back as he realised he too had once laughed freely and frequently. When had that changed for him?

So enthralled in his own thoughts was he that Loki barely noticed the man's parting shot, "Well let me know if real power wants a magazine or something."

The words dragged him from his thoughts and Loki scowled at the glass for a few moments before remembering he was being watched. Schooling his face he crossed to the bare bench in the cell and lowered himself gracefully onto it. The indignation at the mocking had fled as rapidly as it had come and he found himself instead rummaging through the information he had gathered from Clint to figure out what this magazine was. A few blurry images told him it was a paper based artefact, probably something that contained information and that he could read. It was more brightly coloured than the books he had considered his most prized possessions in the past and for a few moments he was tempted to ask for one so he could explore this new contraption.

The memory of his mission caught up to him before he could and Loki settled back to run over what he had learnt since being captured. So far he had seen Doctor Banner, the man that could turn into a huge green monster, if the beast could be controlled then he may be tempted to risk escape early just to get the sceptre on him, but from the human Banner's reaction that would probably be a terrible mistake. Controlling the Hulk was out, so maybe he could control the metal golem.

Loki thought over the information he had gathered from Clint's mind about the creature, frowning when he realised there was very little there. The energy blasts he already knew about, as well as the fact the construct could fly and communicate. Its maker appeared to have some compassion if the thing pretending to give him a choice to return to the jet-thing was any indication, there was also the golem's ability to have some form of memory, hence he had been given ice on the jet. Although he doubted it could truly understand pain and the intricacies of actual flesh, he still remembered the bruises hitting the seat, hard. If he had had full control of his own power he may have been able to wrest control of a simple golem from its creator, but he doubted even his own power could wrest control of the construct with the sheer amount of life it had been given. His best course of action concerning the animated anthropomorph was to destroy it and hope the energy backlash rendered the controller unconscious (at worst) or dead (at best).

The golem dismissed Loki turned his thoughts onto the soldier. For a human he appeared durable, several of the blows Loki had landed should have shattered bones, possibly even killed him, but the blue clad mortal had staggered to his feet and proceeded to throw himself back into the fight with abandon. A human with such single mindedness should be easy to turn to his side, especially with the sceptre, but there was a disturbing morality and pure goodness behind the soft blue eyes that even if it meant his downfall Loki just couldn't and wouldn't bring himself to destroy. Besides the male was human and so should be easy enough to destroy outside of his blue armour, especially if one removed the shield from him. Despite himself Loki was impressed at the fact the male could use it as a weapon and defensive item, even more impressive was the fact it stood up to a strike from Thor's hammer.

Grinding his teeth softly Loki was starting to realise he didn't really have many options to manipulate on the flying vessel. He seemed to be down to the red haired female or the many grunts as his only alternatives. The one-eyed male was going to be avoided at all costs or as a last resort. Loki shuddered at the thought of what that mortal could do with power, he finally found a name for the human in his memory and decided that the male's parents had obviously been seers of some description. Fury fitted the man a little too well. Pushing his unease at that human to the back of his mind Loki dismissed the grunts also. They were just more of the same, too alike to the humans he had already collected.

Unaware he started to chew his lip as he thought about the female. She had some skills obviously, otherwise she would not have been flying the vehicle-jet- he had been taken on. The soldier obviously respected her and the golem deferred to her. He pondered a moment on that thought before dismissing her as the construct's creator or control. For one he had sensed no magic flowing back to her and second they had obviously not been expecting the metal being in Germany. She was an unknown to him, despite the memories he had gleaned from Clint. She was deadly enough in her own way, an assassin, a spy and a trained killer. She was possibly immune to any form of mind control, but her training was one of the few areas the archer hadn't had any information on. She was, he decided, someone he would try and recruit if he got a chance (mainly if she was unconscious and only then), but not someone he would pursue. He already had one in his midst that could break free of him mind control, he didn't need another unknown variable.

With that thought he tucked one booted foot under him as he mentally went through those he had under his control to see if he could pinpoint just who the Fury mortal had meant.

 _ **AN: Shorter than I wanted, but I am quite pleased with the outcome. Please leave me a review and let me know what you think.**_


	10. Bitter Sweet

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **AN: It appears my day off shall be filled with wind and rain. Why does it do this to me when my days in work have been filled with warmth and sunshine? BAH!**_

 _Quote of the day:_

 _Abraham Erskine_ _: "Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man"_

 _ **Song of the Day: 'My Immortal' by Evanesence.**_

 _ **LovesDragons: yes it would still be worth a shot. Yeah he is smart, just a bit muddled at the moment. I cannot see why Clint would have that information, after all it was Romanoff who did the work on Tony.**_

Chapter Nine-Bitter Sweet.

Apparently Coulson had been sent to Tony and had for once in his life gotten distracted. Tony allowed the agent the small moment as he believed the man's life to be his work, he didn't even raise a fuss when the agent paused in asking about a small bit of tech and went red. Merely nodding and placing his suit into the storage provided. He'd give the guy a break this time for Pepper.

As it was they appeared just outside the doors to the control centre as a conversation was starting up. Tony glanced at Coulson who smiled mischievously and hit the intercom button. One that would let them hear without being sensed. Tony felt his lips twitch as he realised there was a lot more to Agent Coulson that he had originally thought, apparently enough that he was no longer annoyed at Pepper calling the other male by his first name.

Banner's voice reached them first. "He really grows on you doesn't he?" Tony blinked as it registered that the guy who turned into the Hulk actually had a sense of humour.

Thoughts were pushed from his head as the Captain's voice sounded, "Loki's going to drag this out…" Tony couldn't argue with that and shooting another glance at a smirking Coulson he leant against the wall to listen, "So, Thor what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Well that confirmed that the brunette Asgardrian had given up too quickly, but how the hell did blondie know that? Thor's voice continued drawing him out of his thoughts, "They are not of Asgard, nor of any world known."

Form the silence of the others in that room Tony assumed they hadn't expected that. Thor's footsteps sounded loud and Tony could imagine him pacing, "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I expect, for the Tesseract."

Tony felt for the blonde guy he really did. Exhaustion was clear in his voice and so the wince as the Captain's voice filled the air was completely natural, "An Army? From outer space!"

Again Tony couldn't blame the soldier for being rude here, the guy had fell asleep in the middle of World War two, only to awaken to find everything and one he had loved gone and the world changed. He was allowed to be disbelieving about aliens, but he would also have to get over that really quickly.

Banner seemed to be the only one thinking straight and his voice was full of worry, "So…he's building another portal? That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

Tony's brain dragged up that both Banner and Thor knew this scientist even as the blonde Asgardrian's voice echoed again, "Selvig?"

Banner stuttered slightly as he answered, "He's an astrophysicist."

Thor seemed unimpressed, "He is a friend."

Tony groaned and held his head as Agent Romanoff's impersonal voice took up the conversation. "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."

"I want to know why Loki let us take him, he's not leading an army from here." Captain America brought up the question.

Banner dismissed it, "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." There was exhaustion and anger in the scientist's tone and Tony wondered just where he had met the Asgardrian. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."

Tony bit his lip at Banner's dig and stuffed his fist into his mouth at the exchange that followed.

"Have care how you speak," Thor rumbled, "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard and he is my brother."

Romanoff was pissed, "He killed eighty people in two days."

Thor tried covering his own ass, "He's adopted?"

Banner dragged the conversation back to what was important and Tony shot Coulson a look that screamed never, ever mention this, only to find the agent in the same position as himself. Tuning back into the conversation he listened carefully to Banner, "I think it is about the mechanics. Iridium! What do they need the iridium for?"

Tony exchanged eye rolls with Coulson and they entered the bridge together. "It's a stabilising agent." Tony saw realisation flash into Banner's brown eyes, even as the rest looked confused. He made a vague offer to Coulson while everyone else exchanged looks and smirked as the agent nodded before professionalism caught up with him.

Tony turned his eyes from Coulson's retreating back and focused on those gathered around a table. "It means the portal wont collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." he allowed his steps to take him passed a glowering Thor and patter him on the arm, "No hard feelings PointBreak. You've got a mean swing."

The blonde blinked and as he remained in place Tony took it as a win, "Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

Tony reached the control centre and glanced around the apparently busy agents. Something caught his attention and he huffed in disbelief. He mumbled something and got several glares from agents, giving up on tact he merely pointed "That man is playing Galegar. Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

He winced as the screens Fury liked to use made his eyes twitch, "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Agent Hill's voice made him half turn and shoot her a grin.

"Sounds exhausting." When Fury's second in command made no move to stop him he glanced over the information available, "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily…" They bought the act and he slid his second hand free to touch screens as well. "The only other major component he needs is a power source, Of high energy density…"

He allowed himself to trail off, slipped a bug Jarvis could use onto one of the panels and turned back to face them, "Something to kick start the cube."

Agent Hill was unimpressed, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

Tony shot her a look, apparently she hadn't read his file, "Last night."

When she blinked he considered it a win and expanded, "The packet, Slevig's notes, the extraction theory papers." At the blank stares he huffed. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

He decided there and then Captain America actually despised him, "Is Loki going to need any particular kind of power source?"

Tony hid a smile as the Captain's neck cricked as Banner answered. "He'd have to heat the cube to one hundred and twenty million kelvin, just to break through the cooling barrier."

Tony eyed the nervous twitch the doctor had concerning his glasses and sighed. Obviously these people really went out of their way to put the man at ease. Smiling widely he met the doctor's eyes, "Unless Selvig has figured out a way to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect."

Banner looked up, and Tony knew he was being judged so he kept the smile friendly and nodded as the doctor spoke, "Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

Tony couldn't help himself and his grin grew wider as he strode towards the scientist. "Finally someone who speaks English."

He ignored the Captain's, "Is that what happened?" to shake hands with Doctor Banner.

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony watched the younger man carefully and found shocked relief at his joking about the Hulk.

"Thanks," making a mental note to try and get Banner to relax he turned in time to see Fury enter.

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Tony narrowed his eyes at Fury and saw the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. mentally regroup.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Before it could go further Captain America made a reasonable suggestion and Tony found himself impressed, even if he would never admit it aloud.

Fury narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly, "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Tony winced as he remembered reading the files on Barton and Selvig, Thor happened to innocently break the tension. "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do!" In disbelief Tony turned to look at Captain America who was looking ridiculously proud of himself. Unable to bring himself to pop the guy's bubble of happiness Tony merely rolled his eyes as the super soldier happily exclaimed, "I understood that reference."

As he turned to converse with Doctor Banner and Fury he chuckled mentally at Captain America explaining the Wizard of Oz to a confused Thor. He supposed in this instance he had to give both of them a pass from his taunting. After all one had been in ice of seventy years and one was literally from another planet.

Tony snarled silently as Fury kept interrupting Doctor Banner. He shot the doctor a grin and silently hauled the director out of the room, ignoring Agent Romanoff's hands dropping to her weapons. "What the hell is your problem?" He snapped.

Fury raised an eyebrow, "Stark I…"

"No you listen and listen well you overstuffed puppet for the council, whoever they are. Doctor Banner is one of the, nay is the best mind in the scientific field, big green rage monster nor not. Currently he is a man slightly scared that someone is going to decide to fill him full of bullets, which means he will flip out and hurt someone. You dragged his ass here you can damn well start treating him as a human being." Tony went to stride away before a thought caught him, "If you don't I shall inform Captain America you are being a bully."

Without waiting for Fury to rely Tony strode back to Banner, nodding at Romanoff and Hill on his way. He ignored the fact his breathing was elevated and smiled at the scientist. "Show me the lab." His smile was all teeth and he ignored Banner's raised eye brow to beg slightly, "Please show me the lab, I want to see what tech S.H.I.E.L.D. has."

Banner finally let out a soft laugh. "Fair enough," he agreed, "Natasha I'm taking Stark down to the lab, can you try and get me that sceptre and I'll try and find Barton for you."

Tony raised his own eyebrow as the red-haired assassin nodded with a grin. Even as he let banner tow him from the room he called back, "Remember to make people who touch it wear gloves."

 _ **AN: Reviews are always welcome in my world.**_


	11. Radio Active

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.**_

 _ **AN: I have a new appreciation of the arms of the dude who plays Clint Barton, also of the muscles of Robert Downey Jr. Mojitos are fun.**_

 _Quote of the day:_

 _Tony Stark_ _: [_ _reading the newspaper_ _] "Iron Man. That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. I mean it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold titanium alloy, but it's kind of provocative, the imagery anyway."_

 _ **Song of the day: 'Falling Away From Me' by Korn.**_

 _ **Warning: Bad language.**_

Chapter Ten – Radio Active.

Strangely Banner was more on edge once they reached the lab that had been set up and Tony found himself wondering just why he was trying to put the guy at ease. He settles back against a workbench and listened as Banner indicated to the equipment that had been provided by S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony shook off the ideas that bounced around his skull on how he could improve the tech and smiled winningly at the scientist.

"Please Banner," the scientist turned brown eyes to him and Tony found himself smiling naturally. The crooked turn of one side of his mouth obviously worked better than his full on charm as Bruce's shoulders dropped from his defensive posture. Tony swallowed. "You heard what I said to Fury didn't you?"

Banner grinned self-consciously, "I tried too, but my hearing isn't quite that good. Whatever you said had the good Captain staring at you open mouthed though."

Tony scrubbed at his hair, "Ah then forget I said anything then Banner, please."

"Of course," Banner smiled and Tony relaxed, "You said you wanted to see the lab, so why don't I give you a tour while we wait for Fury to decide we are responsible enough to actually use the sceptre to do our jobs?"

Tony found himself laughing, he really liked this guy. "Okay so show me."

It was only when he glanced at his watch he realised he spent half an hour talking to the scientist about nothing in particular. "Banner?"

"Yeah Stark," Tony chuckled as the response came out muffled by the pen the scientist had in his mouth.

"What idea are we using to calibrate the Tesseract's co-ordinates?"

"Well currently I have been using the information screened in by labs equipped with spectrometers." Banner looked up from his work and Tony perched on the bench next to him raising an eyebrow and making 'gimme more' hand signals. "I had them put the spectrometers on the roofs of the labs and calibrate them for gamma rays. I've managed to create an algorithm based off cluster recognition and what I have been able to access of Doctor Selvig's notes."

Tony found himself staring, open-mouthed at the now slightly blushing scientist, before he could gather his thoughts Banner shrugged slightly, "It isn't the best I know, but until I can get my hands on an exact frequency then it was the best I could do."

Tony cleared his throat and forced himself to focus. "Right and it took you turning up for any one in S.H.I.E.L.D. to actually think of doing that. What were they doing before using wirelessly accessible cameras?"

"Well…"

Tony groaned and hid his face in his hands. "Oh my god we have agreed to help imbecils." He heard the scientist shifting uncomfortably next to him and offered him a wry grin, "Don't worry Doctor, I would have probably taken until now to figure out that was what I needed to do." He sat up a bit straighter, "So do you have a map so we can rule out certain places to scan until the drones get here?"

Banner's smile was blinding and Tony smiled softly back pouring over the holographic map and checking co-ordinates given to him by the scientist. When the grunt given the duty of supplying them with the sceptre finally turned up they had managed to rule out a good quantity of Russia, the Middle East as well as China and Japan. Ninety percent of Europe and thirty percent of America and Canada had been eliminated, along with eighty percent of the Arctic and Antarctic Circle.

Tony's first indication was of someone else arriving was the scientist stiffening out of his easy slouch and the other male's shoulders hunching protectively. His second was a scent of gun metal that had him standing sharply and spearing the female who had delivered the sceptre with a harsh glare. What was Fury thinking sending one of his gun toting grunts in here with Banner? Apparently he needed to have another talk with the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He deliberately stepped in between Banner and the agent, breaking the gaze the young woman had on the scientist. She shrank back slightly under his glare and he gave her a quick once over to make sure no bare skin was touching the sceptre.

Satisfied he nodded and gestured at a work bench. "Put it there." He knew he sounded short but he was tired and the woman had single handedly managed to undo all his good work with the scientist. He blinked as he realised he was very protective of the man he had literally just met, but still kept his body between him and the agent's view. He nodded when she carefully placed the sceptre down and offered her a tight smile. "If Fury will allow it I would suggest you retire for the evening."

She offered him a sketchy salute and he frowned after her retreating form. Deciding to play it as if he hadn't noticed Banner's tension he walked over to where there was a supply of latex gloves. "Banner, we have a stand we can prop this up on before we start?"

The scientist's was nervous again when he replied, "Yeah here."

Tony snapped the latex gloves into place and picked up a pair of cotton ones to wear also, no way was he letting that thing near his skin. He glanced over to where Banner was as he pulled those on also and nodded, "That should be okay." He agreed, picking the sceptre up. "You okay to start running the algorithm program while I get this in place?" he wiggled his gloved fingers to indicate that the screens would recognise his touch in the gloves.

Banner nodded miserably and Tony mentally cursed. Huffing he hefted the sceptre, which was heavier than it looked and carefully set it up on the stand Banner had provided. He examined the equipment carefully and managed to get the tiny wires to attach to the sceptre, even as Bruce managed to get the algorithms under way. Finished with the set up Tony exchanged places with Banner and moved over to one of the screens.

When he next glanced up the scientist was running a handheld spectrometer over the sceptre, concentration clear on his face and his shoulders relaxing slightly. "The Gamma readings are definitely consistent to Slevig's reports on the Tesseract."

Turning back to the screen where the data was now flooding threw Tony offered an encouraging grunt to make the scientist keep talking. Banner took the bait, "But it is going to take weeks to process."

Tony scowled at the technology he had to work with before an idea hit him, "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this at..." Tony paused and made sense of the readings he was getting. "…around six hundred teraflops."

Behind him he heard Banner snicker and glanced up in time to catch the shy smile the scientist threw him, "All I packed was a tooth brush."

Tony made a mental not to hand Fury his ass over how they had treated the scientist but managed to make an offer, "You know, you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R and D. You'd love it, its candy land."

He could hear Banner thinking behind him as the scientist moved to another workbench. "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem."

Tony classed that as a win because there was wry humour alongside the self conflagulation. An idea came to him and he wandered over to the scientist, scooping up a screwdriver as he went. "Well I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises."

Mind made up at the scientists sad smile he ducked around behind him and jabbed him in the ribs with the screwdriver. Banner's surprised "Ow!" echoed slightly but Tony peered into the brown eyes.

"Seriously?" he groaned, "Nothing?"

He bit back a growl as an indignant voice sounded from the door way, "Hey! Are you nuts?"

God damn super soldier and his morals, but completely the wrong attitude to how to treat Banner. He supposed he couldn't fully blame the man as he was only following on S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol and probably thought he was protecting the scientist, but Banner was tensing up again and Tony was now the one close to losing his temper.

He forced himself to peer at Banner again before turning away to rummage through his rucksack that had magically appeared. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

Banner's grin lit up the lab, only to dim as Captain America once again spoke. "Is everything a joke to you?"

He decided the super soldier was only being so antagonistic because of whose son he was and played casual. "Only the funny things," he joked pointing the screwdriver at the man, fake smile firmly in place.

Banner was still beside him, but had stopped tensing up so he wasn't offended by Tony's actions. The Captain's next words were a different matter however, "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor."

Tony repressed a groan and an eye roll and determinedly opened a bag of dried cranberries even as Banner seemed to ready himself for his own type of fight. "No, it...it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Tony did groan at that and he pointed the screwdriver at Banner, "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Tony tightened his grip on the bag and screwdriver in his hands. Captain America was seriously getting on his last nerve.

It was probably a good job he wasn't the one who turned into a giant green rage monster. He was focused on the damn problem and just because he could also think of other things didn't mean he didn't know that this was serious. They had an alien god-being in the cell the damn people had built for Banner, and probably shown him, with said god's brother torn between being protective and murderous. On top of that they were risking an alien invasion that could theoretically wipe out the human race. That he was for once playing nicely with others and well meaning, but miss-directed people kept spoiling his plans was not helping his blood pressure.

For a moment he tasted coconut and metal before turning his back on the super soldier and once again wandering behind Banner. "You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

Tony knew he was rambling, but the light that shone in Banner's eyes at his words told him that he probably wasn't being as paranoid as he was wont to. Captain America's baby blue eyes went wide, "You think Fury's hiding something?"

He didn't need Banner's discrete nudge to understand if he caught the Captain's interest the man would go exploring himself. "He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets."

He pointed at Banner ignoring the Captain's look, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

Banner swallowed and acted nervous, but Tony had catalogued al his tells and was merely impressed by the man's acting. "Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..."

Captain America obviously bought it for he cut through Banner's ramblings with an almost harsh tone. "Doctor?"

Tony met Banner's eyes and silently offered him encouragement. The scientist sighed and pulled his glasses off, rubbing his nose in a nervous, but irritated manner. "Fine. 'A warm light for all mankind to share', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

The Captain responded and Tony felt his eyes widen even as he turned his full attention to the conversation, "I heard it."

Tony finally put the pieces together as Banner pointed at him. "Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't say anything it was posted all over the news." Tony offered the scientist a cranberry and Banner grabbed a handful.

Rolling his eyes mentally as he realised he had found someone else who forgot to eat Tony turned to a frowning Captain America who was babbling. "The Stark Tower? That big ugly..." Tony glared at him and the Captain swallowed, "building in New York?"

Banner mumbled around a mouthful of cranberries and Tony offered the bag again as the scientist talked, "It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

Tony forced a wide grin back as Banner's attention switched back to him, "That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

Banner gestured, sounding more slurred as he relaxed, "So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

Tony hid a grin as he walked around the workbench to the Captain's side, "I should probably look into that once my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

Tony let the grin go as the Captain stuttered and Banner snickered, "I'm sorry did you say…?"

Deciding to take pity on the morally struggling soldier Tony offered an explanation, "Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide."

The man merely stood up straighter was he offered him a cranberry, "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

Tony sighed heavily and exchanged glances with Banner who rolled his eyes and returned to work on the sceptre. "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not possible."

Captain America drew himself up further and Tony found himself feeling short. "I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style." He mentally winced as he let the words out.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Apparently the Captain has sass hidden somewhere and Tony forced himself to smirk.

"Of the people in this room, which one is; a) wearing a spangly outfit, and b) not of use?"

Banner huffed a small laugh at Tony's response, but tried to be the voice of reason. "Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

The supper soldier shot Tony a venom filled glare before he turned to Banner, "Just find the cube."

Tony stared after the retreating blue back, even as Banner flapped behind him, "That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

Tony was relieved when Banner didn't comment on his tone of voice. "The guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us."

Tony rolled his eyes at that and leant against the workbench for a few moments rubbing his hands over his face and hair. "Urgh," he found himself muttering as he headed for another screen, "What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

"And I'll read all about it." Banner sounded so sure he wasn't wanted, couldn't be of use that Tony forgot that the set of Captain America's jaw had meant the super soldier would be investigating.

"Uh huh," he agreed, "Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us."

Banner was silent for a second and Tony wondered if he'd played it wrong, "Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

Oh cry me a fucking river, Tony found himself thinking and decided to give Banner a short history lesson. "You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart." He tapped the slight glow that could be see through his two t-shirts, walking over to make eye contact with the scientist. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armour. It's a terrible privilege."

Banner looked over at him, calculating and cautious, "But you can control it!"

Well statements Tony could work with, "Yes because I learnt how. This goes Banner I die."

Tony felt a twinge of guilt when Banner turned back to his screen, hiding the flash of sadness in his brown eyes. He nearly missed the response, "It's different."

Tony snarled, "Hey," he snapped flinging the information away from the centre of the screen and forcing Bruce to focus on him alone. "I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

Brown eyes became disbelieving, "So you're saying that the Hulk, the other guy, saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Save it for what?"

Tony didn't miss the flinch the scientist made at saying the name of his alter ego and so forced himself to step away and study his own data again, "I guess we'll find out."

Banner seemed almost thoughtful as he replied, "You may not enjoy that."

Tony grinned at the data, "You just might."

Silence, other than the beeping of the tech surrounding them and yet Tony felt that it was more of an easy silence than they had had before. He hoped Banner would think on his words, the man needed to believe in himself and he needed S.H.I.E.L.D. off his back. The only way he would do so was to finally stand up for himself. Tony rubbed his eyebrow as he worked, eyes skittering about the data, he still didn't understand why he was so drawn to the scientist, nor why he was so protective, but Banner was a good guy and he clearly needed a friend.

The blue of one of the graphs he was staring at reminded him of Loki's eyes and he huffed as the Asgardrian found his way into his thoughts again. He mentally shook himself, wondering momentarily if the so-called god could offer mind control through his armour. "Stop being stupid!" he muttered under his breath and Banner huffed a laugh behind him.

"Our Asgardrian friend giving you a headache as well?"

Tony turned and leant against the workbench. "I want to punch him and yet he intrigues me."

Banner's brown eyes met him in amusement. "The other guy doesn't like him," he admitted softly.

Tony raised an eyebrow at the admission and thought that perhaps trying to set the other male at ease would be worth it, "So what we can't find this thing I lock you in a room with him and we get the answers that way."

Banner laughed, "Well it would be worth the thirty thousand foot drop."

Tony managed to force a laugh and throw a pen at the scientist before he turned around and glowered at the screen in front of him. Damn Fury showing him the bloody thing. His hands curled into fists and he really hoped Jarvis' scan or Captain America's search turned something up. Bloody man needed bringing down a peg or two.

 _ **AN: Please leave me a review and let me know what you think.**_


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